SC issues order on women’s right to inheritance

ISLAMABAD:  The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Saturday issued its written verdict on women’s right to inheritance. In a written order, Justice Qazi Faez Isa stated that, “depriving female members of a family from their right to inheritance by their male relatives is an abominable act.”

The apex court observed that, “it is a general tendency to deny women of their right to inheritance, provided by the Sharia law, through fraud and other intrigues. This deprivation of family inheritance causes pain to women. Every day the country witnesses male relatives denying their female kin of their inherent right, which is a violation of divine law.”

Read more: SC terms depriving women of shariah right of inheritance abominable

Earlier, the SC in its landmark ruling in September, had stated that women must claim their right to inheritance in their lifetime and if they fail to do so then their children cannot claim on their behalf. The Court had given this verdict in a case where the children of two women had claimed the right to the property once owned by their maternal grandfather.

In the case, the maternal grandfather Isa Khan had transferred his properties to his son Abdul Rehman in 1935 and did not provide any share of his properties to his two daughters. The women’s children, however, claimed their right to inheritance of their maternal grandfather in 2004. A civil court decided the matter in their favour but the Peshawar High Court (PHC) quashed the lower court’s decision.

The SC also upheld the high court’s decision in the case.