Born Guilty: Paternal Abandonment and The Legal Invisibility of Illegitimate Children in Pakistan

Abstract

This research paper examines the precarious legal status of children born out of wedlock in Pakistan, a group that Pakistani law, society, and religious jurisprudence collectively render nearly invisible. Branded as walad-ul-zina (children of fornication), these children are stripped of paternal lineage (nasab), denied inheritance rights under personal law, excluded from social protection systems, and left entirely at the mercy of a legal framework that systemically privileges the father's freedom over the child's survival. This paper argues that Pakistan's domestic law, as it currently operates, enables a near-complete escape route for biological fathers: they face no civil liability for the existence of their child, no mandatory financial obligation, and no meaningful legal compulsion to acknowledge paternity. Drawing on the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961, the Guardianship and Wards Act 1890, UNCRC obligations, comparative jurisprudence from Muslim-majority states, and Islamic doctrines of concubinage (milk al-yamin) and temporary marriage (nikah al-mut'a), this paper demonstrates that the child, not the father, bears the full burden of illegitimacy. The paper concludes with legislative recommendations to establish civil paternity recognition, mandatory DNA-based maintenance orders, and a statutory framework for the rights of children born outside of marriage, consistent with both constitutional guarantees and Islamic principles of justice (adl) and prevention of harm (darar).