Unpaid maintenance: arrears and enforcement

Claiming the months that were not paid

A wife’s right to maintenance runs from the Nikah (Supreme Court, 2025), and a child’s from birth. Months that were not paid before the case can be claimed as past maintenance in the same suit as current maintenance.

You must show they were not paid. Courts look at the whole history: in a 2026 case the Sindh High Court kept a grandfather’s monthly maintenance but removed an award of past maintenance, because the mother had earlier undertaken to bear the costs.

How far back? Husbands often argue a six-year limit under Article 120 of the Limitation Act. In April 2026 the Lahore High Court upheld 12 years of past maintenance where the husband had admitted in his own pleadings that his wife had not been maintained since 2012 (2026 LHC 2515), and the Supreme Court addressed the question in 2025. The answer still depends on the facts, so ask us before you file.

If the father cannot pay, the children’s paternal grandfather can be joined in the suit; he is liable only if he is in easy circumstances and the father lacks the means (2025 LHC 2300).

When interim maintenance is not paid

Once a maintenance suit is filed, the Family Court can fix interim maintenance to be paid while the case runs (section 17-A of the Family Courts Act). If the payer does not pay it, the court can strike off his defence and decree the suit. The Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court have upheld this for unpaid interim maintenance for children. The court must still look at the plaint and documents before decreeing.

This power applies to suits by wives and children; the Lahore High Court has held it does not apply to parents suing their sons.

Executing a maintenance decree

A final maintenance decree is enforced by an execution petition in the Family Court that passed it (section 13). The court can order:

• attachment of salary, with the employer deducting the amount each month;
• attachment of bank accounts and property;
• attachment of a pension: in 2026 the Lahore High Court allowed a retired army officer’s pension to be attached for his children’s maintenance (2026 LHC 6545);
• recovery as arrears of land revenue;
• arrest and detention, but only as a last resort, after other methods fail, a proper show-cause hearing and a finding that the payer wilfully defaulted (CPC section 51 and Order XXI rule 37; 2026 LHC 7983).

The court cannot block the payer’s CNIC to force payment: the Lahore High Court set aside such an order in 2026, while leaving the rest of the execution to continue (2026 LHC 4578). If the payer has moved property out of reach to avoid the decree, the transfer can be challenged in execution, and late challenges to execution steps fail (2026 LHC 2305).

Where a decree adds the children’s school or medical costs to a fixed monthly sum, documented increases can be claimed in execution without a new suit (Sindh High Court, 2026). Annual increases ordered in the decree are claimed the same way.

When the payer lives abroad

A Pakistani decree can be executed against the payer’s salary, accounts or property in Pakistan. Enforcing it abroad depends on the law of that country. If a foreign court has already ordered maintenance for the same child and period, and it is being paid, the Islamabad High Court has held that this can bar an overlapping claim in Pakistan; living abroad alone does not stop a Pakistani case. See our brief on foreign maintenance orders.

Keep a record from day one

Write down every payment received and every month missed, with dates and amounts, and keep bank statements and messages. A clear record is the fastest way to prove arrears in execution.