Women’s Inheritance Rights in Pakistan: Barriers in Implementation Despite Statutory Protections

Abstract

Women's inheritance in Pakistan is formally protected under Islamic injunctions, constitutional commitments to equality, and statutory reforms made to discourage deprivation and promote implementation. Yet, both in urban and rural contexts women remain excluded from inherited property - in particular land - through practices that take advantage of social pressure, administrative opacity and procedural delay. This paper argues that the best way to understand the problem is as an "implementation gap": the availability of the right in principle and in law but its routine neutralization at the points where property changes from entitlement to possession - death registration, mutation, record maintenance and partition. Using a doctrinal and desk-based socio-legal methodology, the paper first lays out the Islamic normative basis of women's inheritance in the form of a binding entitlement (fara'id) and then charts the constitutional and statutory framework in Pakistan, including the criminal preclusion of depriving women of inheritance and enforcement mechanisms at the provincial level. It then identifies the key barriers: coercive "consent", family led bargaining which constructs claims around dishonour, capture of revenue processes, the economics of litigation, and poor accountability. The paper finally looks at recent judicial and Shariat-court arguments rejecting customs that deny women inheritance and placing an increasing positive burden on the state to safeguard women's shares. The conclusion suggests focused reforms grounded in proactive state facilitation, revenue governance safeguards, and evidentiary scrutiny of waivers, legal aid, and meaningful enforcement of criminal law to transform formal rights into lived entitlements.