ISLAMABAD: On Saturday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued its written decision regarding a woman’s right to inheritance.
“Depriving female members of a family by their male relatives from their right to inheritance is an abominable act”, the court decision written by Justice Qazi Faez Isa read.
“Depriving women from family inheritance, which is allowed by the Sharia, is violation of the divine law,” according to the judgment.
“It is a general tendency to deny the women from their right to inheritance provided by the Sharia law, with fraud and other intrigues,” the Supreme Court bench observed.
“This deprivation of family inheritance causes pain to women. Every day the country witnesses male relatives deny their female kinfolk from their inherent right,” the court said.
The Supreme Court in its landmark ruling in September said that women must claim their right to inheritance while they are alive.
“If they fail to claim inheritance in their lifetime, their children cannot lay a claim,” a bench of the apex court said in its verdict over the women’s right to inherit.
A bench of the supreme court said that this law will protect women’s right to inheritance. “What remains to be decided is what happens if they rescind their right or do not lay a claim over the family inheritance.
The Supreme Court said with regards to a case in which children of two women had claimed their right in property of their maternal grandfather.
Isa Khan transferred his properties to his son Abdul Rehman in 1935. He did not grant a share in his property to his two daughters.
The sisters never claimed their right to inheritance in their lifetime. Their 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) had reversed the lower court’s decision. The Supreme Court also upheld the high court’s decision in the case.