Daily Times

Statutory law has been tightened to prevent women from having their property relinquished without their consent such that in some instances a woman may be required to go out, be present in front of a public official, and sign documents to ensure a transfer. Women complained that men who usually did not allow them to go out would have no problem parading them in front of public officials to obtain the necessary transfer documents.

In the SDPI survey of male respondents, 50 percent stated women did not claim land because of customary law, 32.4 percent said it was out of familial obligations and 29 percent said it was because of ignorance of laws. The female respondents in the SDPI surveyed explained their lack of rights through culture or custom and because they wish to preserve future family support.

The Awaz Foundation survey of South Punjab asked respondents why women do not demand their inheritance rights. The most stated answers were social customs/practices (85 percent), fear of annoying family (80 percent) and the possibility of having to turn to one’s natal family for future support (70 percent). Other responses were not as popular and included they may forego their rights as a symbol of respect (45 percent), because of lack of awareness (45 percent) or assertiveness (30 percent).

Interviews with key informants identified three categories under which women could hold, manage and control land in Pakistan. Firstly, women could get land through the state land distribution. It took place only in Sindh in two phases between 2008 and 2010. During first phase land distributed largely among males while in second phase land was allotted largely to female.

Secondly, women’s inheritance rights over residential and other properties.More recently in Punjab province, Women’s Empowerment Package 2012 and Punjab Women Empowerment Initiative 2014 are introduced. The measures under these initiatives includes; eliminating barriers and address the issues depriving women of their land rights. State land in a number of katchi abadis in Punjab is allotted under joint ownership to both spouses.

Thirdly,women may inherit agriculture land. Despite women contribution to agriculture, it is difficult for women to claim their inheritance rights over agriculture land under existing statutory and Islamic laws.  It is claimed by one of the key informant that women own very small proportion of agriculture land in Pakistan.

The evidence suggest that effective advocacy campaigns together with targeted information dissemination strategy and available support mechanism on the ground could really advance the women’s land and inheritance rights by informing and lobbying key stakeholder as well as policy process. Thus, there is an immediate need for designing and developing effective advocacy campaigns to influence law, policy and practice in Pakistan at regional, provincial and national level.

It is also important to focus on designing effective advocacy, disseminating targeted and relevant information, sharing knowledge and devising support mechanisms on the ground are central to any improvement in securing women’s inheritance and land rights to own, control and mange land. There is also a need to develop an understanding on the status of women’s land rights, laws and legislation pertaining to their inheritance rights, customary and religious barriers as well as how these statutory, customary and religious laws are translated into practice on the ground.

In addition, there is also a need to explore the application of statutory, customary and religious laws and evaluate comparative superiority or inferiority of these laws. It is important to note that there are differences in societal perceptions based on gender i.e. men/women, socio-economic status i.e. income/class and religion i.e. Muslim /Non-Muslims.

Some important steps that could be taken to further the cause of women inheritance rights are outlined here:

There are laws in place; however the non-implementation is due to the mindset. Thus, we need to work closely with law enforcement agencies, revenue officer, patwaris and court officials as well as other people involved in enforcing the law as well as imputing court decisions.

There is a need to interact with the political leadership as politician are in a better position to influence enforcement of laws and implementation of court orders at provincial and national level. In addition, political leadership could also influence collection, maintenance and transfer of land records. Women face problems at local revenue and patwari level if they want to claim their inherence rights.

There is need to promote women education and economic empowerment as these could lead to improvement in the situation. An educated woman can understand and claim her rights.

In the SDPI survey of male respondents, 50 percent stated women did not claim land because of customary law, 32.4 percent said it was out of familial obligations and 29 percent said it was because of ignorance of laws. The female respondents in the SDPI surveyed explained their lack of rights through culture or custom and because they wish to preserve future family support

Civil society organisations should come up with better and effective advocacy campaigns to inform people as well as policy and decision maker to put the right arrangements in place.

The legal system requires fundamental re-organisation to be more approachable for common people. Government even could introduce a minimum charge on the conditions that court cases and disputes will be settled quickly.

There should be special legislation on the implementation of court decisions.  Court should have implementation powers.

We should work together to put the issues of inheritance and land rights on the political agenda. Women currently fighting cases or willing to claim their rights should be provided with information, support and guidance.

Women claiming their inheritance rights should be supported in the court proceedings. A panel of advocates could be organised that can provide expert opinion for free as a social service. Targeted training to lawyers, particularly young lawyers should be imparted.

The existing legislation concerning to these issues are appropriate, however, there are problems with enforcement and implementation. The whole issue of inherence and land rights have positive consequences on women empowerment. Thus, any initiative to provide awareness and legal aid to the affected women should be support.

The legislation pertaining to the inheritance and land rights should be reviewed and necessary amendment should be made to support women’s right to inherit. There is a need to carry out lobbying and research to find out the gaps in policy and practice.

It is a long-term struggle to sensitize common people and make raise their awareness that dispossessing women of their rights is wrong and women need to be given their legal share.

There should be one unified legal code to deal with inheritance claims.

The civil procedure codes and rules need to be amended. The provincial rules encourage interlocutory applications that are used a delaying tactics. The law of evidences under the civil procedure code needs to be amended.

We need to lobby political parties and manifestos to demand promises to address the issues. After 18th constitutional amendments, land is now a provincial subject.

The issues around land governance should be addressed such as distribution of state land as per political party manifestos to landless haris, form land agrarian councils at the provincial level and implementation of land reform. Effective lobbying and advocacy campaigns should be organised to address these issues.

The author has a Masters degree from London School of Economics (LSE) and a PhD from Oxford Brookes University and worked extensively in Pakistani education sector. He is currently working as an External Consultant for the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development. This article is based on a research commissioned by International Land Coalition (ILC) based on Rome, Italy and Society for Conservation & Protection of Environment (SCOPE). The full report is available on request from the author on dr.shakil.ghori@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, December 8^th 2018.