Federal Shariat Court has declared that any custom by virtue of which any female member of a family is being or has been denied or deprived of her right of inheritance, which is granted by the Holy Quran and Sunnah as un-Islamic, hence having no legal force whatsoever.
“We have concluded that the inheritance right of women, if denied, under any form and manner whatsoever on the pretext of local custom or usage, is un-Islamic, although the respondent departments, i.e. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Commissions on the Status of Women and Ombudspersons are working rightly but there is a need that they must act continuously, more vigilantly and proactively to eradicate this social evil, rather crime from society, of depriving women in any manner from claiming their right of inheritance or putting them under disadvantage to claim their due share in their inheritance”, says 20 pages judgement authored by FSC judge Dr Syed Muhammad Anwer.
A four members of FSC led by Chief Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman heard the Shariat petition filed under Article 203-D of the constitution.
The petitioner Syeda Fouzia Jalaal Shah has raised an issue whereby women are being deprived of their due right to inheritance in their ancestral property on the pretext of a local custom despite the fact that such right of inheritance is specifically and categorically recognised by Islam in the Holy Quran and Sunnah.
According to the petitioner, this custom is called Chaddar or Parchi, which is in vogue in the area of Bannu District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), whereby women are being deprived of completely from their right of inheritance in their ancestral property through Jirga or they are forced to take less valuable property as of their inheritance share by putting pressure upon her.
In addition to this, the petitioner has also sought a relief in-personam as her mother, Syeda Iftikhar Bibi, was allegedly deprived of her share in her father’s and husband’s inheritance due to the local custom or usage which the petitioner named as Chaddar or Parchi, hence the petitioner also sought a personal relief for her mother from this Court through the same petition.
