Family Laws

A 1909 law confirming that Sikh Anand-ceremony marriages are legally valid in Pakistan, while excluding non-Sikh marriages, marriages already voided by a court, and unions within prohibited degrees of relationship.

A 1937 law confirming that inter-caste or inter-religious-background marriages between Arya Samajists are legally valid in Pakistan.

This 1929 Act criminalises solemnising, conducting, or facilitating a child marriage (a marriage where the male is under 18 or the female is under 16), with courts also able to issue injunctions to stop a child marriage before it happens.

An 1872 law governing how Christian marriages in Pakistan must be solemnized and registered -- by licensed ministers or government Marriage Registrars, with special notice and consent rules when one party is a minor -- and setting out related offences for false declarations or improperly conducted marriages.

The Claims for Maintenance (Recovery Abroad) Ordinance, 1959 gives legal effect in Pakistan to a UN Convention that lets a person owed maintenance in one country recover it from someone living in another Convention country, through free, government-to-government assistance rather than private cross-border litigation.

A 1939 Act listing the specific grounds -- such as desertion, non-maintenance, cruelty, impotence, or false accusations of adultery -- on which a Muslim woman can obtain a court decree dissolving her marriage.

The 1869 law governing divorce, judicial separation, and related matters for Christians in Pakistan, setting out different grounds for husbands and wives to seek dissolution of marriage; it has been substantially amended since.

Sets legal caps on the value of dowry, bridal gifts, wedding presents and total wedding expenditure in Pakistan, requires a declaration to the Nikah Registrar confirming compliance, and allows Family Court prosecution for violations — though its 1976-era rupee limits are long outdated.

Governs how courts appoint and supervise guardians for minors in Pakistan, covering who can apply, what the court considers, the strict limits on a property guardian dealing with a ward's assets without court permission, and penalties for improperly removing a ward from the court's jurisdiction.

A 1916 Act allowing Hindus to validly transfer or will property to beneficiaries not yet born or in existence at the time, subject to conditions in the Transfer of Property Act and Succession Act.

A 1928 law protecting Hindus with a disease, deformity, or physical/mental disability from being excluded from inheritance or joint-family property, except for those born and remaining a lunatic or idiot.

A 1946 law confirming that a Hindu marriage is not invalid merely because both parties share the same gotra/pravara or belong to different sub-castes.

A 1946 Act allowing a Hindu married woman to live separately from her husband and claim maintenance on specific grounds such as cruelty, desertion, disease, bigamy, or his keeping a concubine, with the amount set by a court based on the couple's means and social standing.

An 1856 law — one of the oldest in this corpus — that legalised the remarriage of Hindu widows and their children's legitimacy, while setting out how a widow's limited property rights end on remarriage and who becomes guardian of her children from the earlier marriage.

A 1937 Act giving a Hindu widow (or widows) a defined share -- equal to a son's share -- of her husband's property when he dies without a will, though her interest is a limited "Hindu woman's estate."

A 2000 ordinance banning extravagant wedding lighting, fireworks, and celebratory gunfire, and limiting food served at marriage functions to one dish plus drinks, with fines up to Rs 500,000 for violations.

An 1874 law (not applicable to Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain marriages) that makes a married woman's earnings and property legally her own, lets her insure her own life or benefit from her husband's insurance policy, and protects her from liability for her husband's or her own pre-marriage debts.

The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 sets the requirements for a valid Parsi marriage, bars bigamy, requires marriages and divorces to be registered, and establishes special Parsi Matrimonial Courts to handle nullity, divorce, judicial separation, alimony, and child custody cases. It is an old law with outdated fee and penalty figures.

The Special Marriage Act, 1872, provides a civil marriage procedure - notice, a period for objections, and a witnessed ceremony before a Registrar - for couples who don't wish to marry under their own religion's personal law, including specific rules for Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain couples who use it.