Female Muslim Petitioners in Pakistani Family Courts - Cases, Problems and Solutions

Abstract

The Family Courts Act, 1964 deliberates about the expeditious provision of justice to Muslim petitioners in family disputes. It is but witnessed that the ratio of satisfied petitioners is very low in Pakistani Family Courts, especially the female petitioners mostly share their bitter experiences in the court during their suits. This research paper aims to discuss the problems faced by female petitioners in Pakistani Family Courts and their solutions. However, there are multiple natured problems faced by female petitioners in Pakistani Family Courts witnessed by us during this study. Therefore, We conducted surveys by the female grievant in cases of maintenance,  divorce,  khul’ and custody. The results showed the problems were unusually long suit, unbearable expenses, insufficient legal support, unbearable false accusations, bribery, nepotism, improper action taken on legal requirements and false witnesses. The reasons for these problems are unawareness about laws and legal procedures, illiteracy, no suitable approach to legal experts, improper family support and no regular study about religion and Sharī’ah Law.  We collected data from 500 female respondents and found out the ratio of each problem. This study consists of facts. Thus, the findings of this study are useful for the experts in reaching to proper action plans for the improvement in legal procedures of Family Courts of Pakistan in providing justice and expediting the procedures.