ISLAMABAD: A recent judgment of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench – on the rights of issueless Shia widows to inherited land – has triggered a debate among lawyers and scholars of the Shia community.

On June 6, 2016 LHC Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi decided the petition of Khalida Shamim Akhtar, which sought a share of the land inherited by her deceased husband, Mohammad Khan. The judge held that the widow has the right to one-fourth of the inherited land.

In the detailed judgment issued by the LHC later, the court said: “It is expected that the Ministry of Law and Justice would take legislative measures to promulgate a codified law in this regard in order to protect the rights of childless widow from Ahle Tasheeh.”

The brothers of the deceased were of the view that under the Shia law of inheritance, “an issueless widow is not entitled to claim her share from the inheritance of her deceased husband”.

In order to support their stance, the brothers produced a book titled “Beevi ki Meeras” before the court authored by Allama Mufti Syed Tayab Agha Mausvi Jazairi. According to the book, when the West Pakistan Legislative Assembly was going to promulgate a law allowing issueless widows a share of the estate of their deceased husbands, the Shia community agitated against the move. As a result, the Legislative Assembly did not legislate on the matter.

A Shia lawyer explains that as there is a possibility that the childless widow may get married a second time, she is not entitled to the share in inherited land.

However, the judgment noted that “in view [of] the importance of the question emerg[ing] in the petition and the fact that a particular class is being deprived from a right of inheritance and the fact that the legislature, despite the fact that it was expected from it even in 1972 to take such legislative measures in order to settle the issue, has not taken any such steps, a public notice was ordered to be issued on May 5, 2016 inviting any segment of life to render assistance to the court in this regard, particularly, Shia Ulema.”

Renowned Shia scholar and member of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Allama Syed Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi Najafi is of the view that the issueless widow is entitled to inherit 1/4th share from the leftover estate of her deceased husband.

According to Mr Najafi, the issue of inheritance has been addressed in Surah Al-Nisa, according to which, the widow is entitled to inheritance. The scholar also referred to the books authored by Iraqi, Iranian and Pakistani scholars on the law of inheritance.

It has been over a month since the judgment was announced. However, it has not been challenged as yet. An intra court appeal (ICA) against the judgment could be filed within 10 days of its pronouncement. An appeal in the Supreme Court can be filed within 60 days.

Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Naqvi, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, said that only the petitioner or the respondents can challenge the judgment of Justice Lodhi.

“If the judgment has not been challenged, it will be used as precedence in future litigation,” he said.

The government has also been asked to amend the law and if it does so, the Shia community will have to abide by the new law, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2016