It is an age-old practice to transfer the inheritance through men. Although the law ensures women’s right to inheritance, old habits die hard.
In 2017, when Pihlwan Baig was alive, he transferred his land between his four daughters and two sons to his six children. Out of the 24 kanals he owned in Ali Abad, Hunza, he gave five marla plots and a shop to each of his daughters.
When he passed away in January 2020, however, his sons decided to claim the entire estate of Pihlwan – even if they had to resort to violence to do so.
In an FIR lodged in November 2021, Pehlwan’s daughter Zahra Bano narrated how her brothers tried to force her to sign a piece of stamp paper. When she hesitated, they beat her up. And when her husband came home and intervened, they also left her and Bano’s 11-year-old son black and blue.
Law
Article 23 of the Constitution Guarantees the right to property for every man and woman in the country. This is supported by a long legal tradition of protecting women’s property rights in Pakistan, beginning with the Married Women’s Property Act of 1874 and the dissolution of the Muslim Marriage Act 1939 under the British Raj, and following independence from Muslim family laws. was walking along. Ordinance, 1961, West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law, Shariat Application Act, 1962 and Prevention of Anti-Women Behavior Act, 2011.
The Enforcement of Women’s Property (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the most recent bill passed in this regard, seeks to ensure that women’s right to own and retain property is not violated through harassment, coercion, force or fraud. goes.
Meanwhile, under the Prevention of Anti-Women Conduct Act, 2011, depriving women of their inherited property by ‘fraudulent or illegal means’ imprisonment of up to 10 years, but not less than five, and/or a fine of Rs 10 lakh. is punishable with fine. ,
But the passing of inheritance through the men of the family is a story as old as time. And although the law gives women the right of succession, old habits die hard.
In fact, according to the Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18, “97 percent of women” [across Pakistan] Land or house was not inherited, while 1 pc each inherited agricultural land and a house. Less than 1 per cent women have inherited non-agricultural plots or residential plots.” While the issue affects women across Pakistan, the piece focused on those living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and certain areas of Gilgit Baltistan (GB), where the data was accessible.
Inheritance Denied
In December 2021 alone, 30 incidents were registered at KP Revenue Department’s service delivery center in Shangla tamlik The practice of gifting property to legal heirs during one’s lifetime. Out of these 30 cases, only two took the daughters into cognizance. In the rest, women were kept separately.
“It is very common for men to deprive daughters of their property rights tamlikThis way, people are able to find a way around laws that give women their entitlement to a deceased person’s property, says Amir Hasan, a revenue official, explaining that.
“When it comes to inheritance, the daughters of the deceased have their share, but even there, the sons usually make agreements with them to inherit their share with their consent.”
Some, however, do not bother with consent, instead choosing to put their female relatives aside and usurp their property.
Waiting outside the Shangla district courts in Alpuri, 70-year-old Naseeb Ranra laments that he has no son. “If I had a son, I would not have had to come to court to fight for the property rights of my late husband Moses. I wish I had just given birth to daughters.”
After the death of Musa Khan, his brother Khoydad allegedly jumped at the chance to seize his father’s land. He quickly transferred the property – about 31 kanals of cultivable land and 465 kanals of non-cultivable land – to his own sons, thereby depriving Ranra and his four daughters of their inheritance. And if that was not enough, he was forcing her to vacate her matrimonial home in Belkani as well, she said.
Although a jirga ordered Khoydad to return the property, he refused to back down. And so, Ranara turned to the courts, hoping they would rule in her favor.
Shabana Khan and her two sisters had also filed a suit in 2021 after her three brothers deprived them of their father’s share of the property. Presenting a fake power of attorney to the court in 2000, after her brothers had seized hundreds of kanals of land belonging to their late father, Shabana and her sisters had no recourse but a court case and complaint against the local revenue department. was recorded.
According to Shabana’s lawyer Mian Safir, her two youngest brothers, Ajaz and Asghar, also found themselves deprived of inheritance, claiming that they were too young to know about the power of attorney when the land was transferred.
Shabana Khan, Zahra Bano and Naseeb Ranara are only three of the horde of women struggling to claim their rightful heritage in the country.
a common practice
Sultan Rom, a senior lawyer and member of the Shangla District Bar Association, says he alone is representing clients in more than three dozen legacy cases; He has a similar caseload to many of his colleagues in the bar association. One reason for this, he points out, is increasing female literacy – women are better educated about their rights and are therefore approaching court if their relatives deprive them of their inheritance.
However, Khan Bahadur, an advocate for the SWAT bench of the Peshawar High Court, estimates that 80 per cent of the legacy cases raised by him in the past have ended with the dispute being resolved by the parties themselves. “You see, women generally don’t want to ruin their relationship with their brothers,” he argues. Also, he says, society considers it shameful for women to appear in court.
“I think when it comes to land transfers, perhaps only one percent of women are taken into account. tamlik,” he adds. “In most cases, fathers pass on their property to their sons. These old customs are followed in our area even today, while depriving women of their rights. Brothers over their sisters pressures them not to ask for their share and the father fears that his daughters will move the property to another family [when they marry],
Faizur Rahman, deputy director of the service delivery center in Shangla, agreed, saying this is a dire pattern he has seen throughout his tenure in the revenue department: men transfer their assets to their sons. tamlikNothing except his daughters.
“In tamlikA person can transfer his land to his son or daughter. [Apart from tamleek,] If they choose to gift the property, they can do so to anyone, even if they are not immediate family members,” he clarifies.
Rehman says that the revenue department has noticed that people often try to mislead the authorities in the matter of inherited property. And so, he says, he set up a mechanism to avoid fraud in land registration by verifying the claims four times through various officials and religious clerics.
“Men in GB do not hesitate to enroll their daughters in school – but when it comes to giving them property rights, they consider it a shameful act,” says Baba Jan, president of the Awami Workers Party in GB. and public meetings as an opportunity to call upon people to put aside these practices and ensure the rights of both men and women. “For myself, I have asked my sisters to do their part [our father’s] property because it is their right. After all, we all loved our parents. ,
Zahra Bano’s lawyer Nazir Ahmed, however, insists that such cases are rare in GB’s Hunza and Nagar districts, where he claims that people are not very keen to protect their daughters’ property rights.
The right of inheritance for women is also enshrined in Islamic injunctions.
“The provision of inheritance is integral in Islam. holy quran says ‘Allah commands you about your children as follows: The man’s share is like that of two women. If (heirs of the deceased) have more than two daughters, they shall have two-thirds of the inheritance; And if there is only one daughter, then half of her share. (4:11),,” recites Maulana Muhammad Fayaz, a senior cleric based in Shangla.
“If a man does not give a share to his daughter, he is in denial of the commandments of Allah and this is a sin; there is no exemption in Islam that allows you to deprive women of their inheritance from their fathers.”
The Supreme Court has also upheld these rights, pointing out last year that the Islamic law of inheritance was final and could neither be changed by the courts nor a jirga. in his writing decision on the matterJustice Kazi Faiz Isa observed that it has become a norm to deprive women of their share of inheritance through fraud and other tactics. Saying that it was against the order of Allah, he termed such acts as ‘disgusting’.
For his part, KP’s Minister for Human Rights, Labor and Culture Shaukat Yousafzai stressed that protecting women’s rights was a priority for the current Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.
“We introduced The Enforcement of Rights to Women (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and it was passed unanimously. Though its implementation will take time, the government will take action against those who fraudulently transfer the inherited properties to themselves and dupe their sisters with their shares,” he said, adding that the government is about to educate women about their property rights. Trying to educate. Options were available to him if he was forced to leave his legacy.
It remains to be seen how effective these measures prove to be. For now, however, Shabana Khan, Zahra Bano and Naseeb Ranara and hundreds of others like them can only hope for justice through the courts, before it is too late.