Dowry and Bridal Gifts (Restriction) Act, 1976

This 1976 Act sets legal limits on how much can be given as dowry, bridal gifts and wedding presents in Pakistan, and applies to all Pakistani citizens. Section 2 defines dowry as property given by the bride's parents to the bride in connection with marriage (not including anything she inherits under normal succession law), bridal gifts as property given by the bridegroom or his parents to the bride (not including Mehr), and presents as gifts to either spouse or their relatives that aren't dowry or bridal gifts.

Section 3 caps the combined value of dowry and presents given to the bride by her parents, and separately caps the combined value of bridal gifts and presents given to the bridegroom, at five thousand rupees each — while noting that giving less is always fine. As amended, no one may even agree to give or accept amounts above this ceiling, and dowry, bridal gifts or presents can only be given within a window running from six months before nikah up to one month after (or, where rukhsati happens later, up to one month after rukhsati).

Section 4 separately caps ordinary wedding presents at one hundred rupees each, with an exception for gifts to the bridegroom from the bride's parents, and a rule that senior public officials (the President, Prime Minister, federal ministers, provincial chief ministers, parliamentarians, and government servants generally, apart from those below National Pay Scale 17 without judicial, revenue or executive authority) can only accept wedding presents from close relatives.

Section 5 says any dowry, bridal gifts or presents given to the bride vest absolutely and unconditionally in her. Section 6 caps total wedding expenditure — excluding the dowry, gifts and presents themselves but including mehndi, barat and valima costs — at two thousand five hundred rupees. Section 8 requires whoever arranges the marriage to file a declaration with the Nikah Registrar confirming these limits were respected, and section 8A lets anyone attending a wedding who believes the Act was breached complain to the Deputy Commissioner. Section 9 sets the penalty for violations at imprisonment up to six months, plus a fine of at least the amount spent in excess of the limits, with the excess forfeited to the government for poor girls' weddings; cases are tried only in a Family Court, on complaint by the Deputy Commissioner within three months of the nikah or rukhsati. This Act is nearly fifty years old and its rupee ceilings (five thousand, one hundred, and two thousand five hundred rupees) are clearly historical figures that would need updating or checking against any amendment to remain meaningful in today's terms.