ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top court on Wednesday ruled that divorced daughters are entitled to their father’s pension irrespective of whether their divorce occurred before or after his death, calling for a review of pension regulations that it said were built on patriarchal assumptions and negative stereotypes about women.
The 10-page verdict was authored by Justice Ayesha Malik, who upheld a Sindh High Court ruling in favor of a woman named Sorath Fatima, the daughter of a deceased employee of Sindh’s Road and Transport Department. After Fatima’s father passed away in 2002, her mother received his pension until she also died in 2012.
As an unmarried daughter, Fatima initially received the pension, which was ceased by the provincial government after she got married. However, following her divorce in August 2022, Fatima requested the resumption of the pension, which was rejected by the Sindh government. It issued a circular that stated that a daughter who got divorced after her father’s demise is not entitled to his pension. Fatima challenged the decision at the Larkana bench of the Sindh High Court, which ruled in her favor.
The Sindh government challenged the high court’s decision at the Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal and said that a divorced daughter’s right to pension is not dependent on the timing of her divorce.
