Landmark Ruling: Pakistan’s Supreme Court Upholds Daughters’ Pension Rights, Regardless of Marital Status
daughters pension rights Pakistan
In a powerful victory for daughters pension rights Pakistan, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has delivered a landmark verdict. The Court decisively ruled that a daughter possesses an unequivocal legal right to claim her deceased father’s pension, irrespective of whether she is married, single, or divorced.
This pivotal judgment, issued on Wednesday, emphatically favors divorced daughters and dismantles discriminatory practices. Justice Ayesha Malik, authoring the 10-page decision, declared a government employee’s pension a constitutional entitlement – not charity. The ruling fundamentally shifts the criteria, stating eligibility must be determined by the daughter’s financial need, never her marital status.
The case centered on Sorath Fatima, a divorced daughter seeking the resumption of her late father’s pension. Her father, employed by Sindh’s Road and Transport Department, passed away in 2002. Her mother received the pension until her death in 2012. Fatima, then unmarried, received it until her marriage. Following her divorce in August 2022, she requested the pension’s resumption. The Sindh Government rejected her claim, citing a controversial 2022 circular denying pensions to daughters divorced after their father’s death.
Fatima challenged this rejection at the Sindh High Court (Larkana Bench) and won. When the Sindh Government appealed to the Supreme Court Pakistan, the apex court delivered a resounding dismissal. The Court firmly established that a divorced daughter’s right to her father’s pension does not depend on when the divorce occurred relative to the father’s death.
Crucially, the Supreme Court struck down the Sindh Government’s 2022 circular as discriminatory and unconstitutional. The Court found the circular imposed unlawful restrictions absent from the actual pension laws. The verdict emphasized that the timing of the pensioner’s death cannot erase a surviving daughter’s legal claim.
The Court delivered a profound critique of linking pension rights to marital status, labeling this approach patriarchal. It highlighted how this outdated “dependency model” treats women as financial burdens, merely transferring reliance from father to husband, and fails to recognize women as financially autonomous individuals.
The ruling powerfully connects women’s rights Pakistan to economic justice. It mandates that access to family pensions must be based on genuine financial need, not marital status, urging authorities to reform pension laws accordingly. The judgment also referenced Pakistan’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), stressing the need to abolish laws hindering women’s rights, and voiced strong disapproval of Pakistan’s persistently poor global ranking on gender equality.
