KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has ruled that divorced daughters are also entitled to receive a share from the monthly pension of her deceased father until she marries again.
The SHC also noted that realising the miseries and hardships faced by divorced and widowed daughters of deceased pensioners, the finance ministry had liberalised the pension rules in 1983 and thereafter, the status of divorced daughters had also been made equal to unmarried daughters.
While allowing a petition of a divorced woman, a two-judge constitutional bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan and Justice Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro directed the respondent authorities to disburse an amount of the monthly pension of deceased pensioner to petitioner Sarwat Ghazi Uddin being divorced daughter and other unmarried/widowed daughter(s) according to their shares preferably within a period of four months.
The petitioner had moved the SHC against the provincial authorities last year and submitted that her father was retired as an assistant professor in the college education department in 1990 and passed away in January 2023.
Bench observes finance ministry had made status of divorced daughters equal to that of unmarried daughters
She argued that being a divorced daughter she, along with an unmarried daughter (sister of the petitioner), was entitled to receive monthly pension in equal shares and sought a directive for the respondents to release the same.
The bench in it order noted that the executive authority has framed rules for distribution of the pension benefits of deceased employees to the bereaved family and under Sub-rule 2(A) of Rule 4(10) widow excludes all the other legal heirs from receiving pension benefits.
“In case deceased pensioner did not leave behind any of the legal heirs mentioned in category A of sub rule 2, legal heirs mentioned in sub Rule 2(B) become entitled to receive pension benefits in the manner that father would receive the pension failing which the mother, failing which the eldest surviving brother below the age of 21 years, failing which the eldest surviving unmarried sister, failing which the eldest widowed sister, failing which the divorced daughter. The divorced daughter was kept in the above category in Rules of 1977,” it added.
In October 1983, the bench further stated that realising the miseries and hardships faced by divorced and widowed daughters of the deceased pensioners, the ministry of finance had liberalised the Pension Rules 1977 through an office memorandum which had changed entire scenario and the status of divorced daughters had been made equal to unmarried daughters bringing them within the bracket of the category mentioned in sub Rule 2(A) of Rule 4(10) of the Pension Rules.
The bench also observed that pension being a fundamental right of the bereaved family cannot be denied in a slipshod manner as has been done by the respondents in the case of petitioner since the widowed daughters by no strength of imagination be placed in a different category to that of unmarried daughters.
“Government of Pakistan by subordinate legislation rightly paved a way for divorced daughters to receive share from pension of their deceased parents, worth appreciable that divorced daughters have been given equal treatment under the law to reduce the burden of their routine expenses,” it added.
Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2025
