Parental Custody of Child in Pakistan

There is no legal mechanism in Pakistan in which if father of the child doesn’t pay maintenance for certain number of years, sole custody should be given to mother. Why an entire system requires an absent father of a child at every step while mother is raising the kid alone.

Imagine you don’t know the whereabouts of a father but you still require his permission to justify that minor has has consent of both parents from travel to almost everything else in Pakistan. How it’s a welfare of a child which under Guardians and Wards Act 1890 declares the ‘welfare of a minor’ a paramount consideration when a child and a single parent raising them is restricted at every step due to administrative challenges.

In most cases lower courts awarding ridiculous minimum amount as a maintenance is a joke even when mothers provide the evidence of how much father is earning. Trust me in most cases this amount doesn’t even pay the commute costs to the courts let alone meeting child’s child ends. Lower courts staff in many cases are compromised either due to their inherent bias against divorcee mothers as home wreckers or how men on the other side manipulate the system through bribes or using a bro code and playing victim.

We won’t make a progress only through amending laws when the actual court proceedings are compromised & when the entire system needs an overhaul because of structural flaws. The mindset of the lower courts judges, lower staff and lawyers needs a special nudge. And indeed – well said – much thought and deliberation required in order to change the archaic ways of decision making in family cases – sad to see that the superior courts do not want to proactively develop the jurisprudence in matters relating to visitation? custody & maintenance.

It’s the same in India where Hindu, Christian women get all such rights in divorce but Muslim women doesn’t. The reason they say it is as Muslim personal law.