Rawalpindi:
A record number of new family disputes was deposited in the family courts of Rawalpindi in the first quarter of 2025, from January 1 to March 31.
A total of 1,451 new cases have been recorded, including disputes on alimony, childcare, the Dower (Haq Mehr) and the return of articles to the dowry.
In addition, 41 husbands approached the courts who were looking for the order to bring back distant wives who had left their house.
For the first time, 21 Christian women also asked for divorce following legal reforms which now allow Christian women to request divorce or separation without going through the process of previously and complex cancellation.
During the three -month period, the courts issued 106 divorce decrees on the basis of Khula (separation initiated by the wife) and ordered 310 husbands or fathers to pay their expenses for their wives and children.
The courts also ordered the reunification of 13 separate couples and returned 75 children from the paternal guard to their mother.
According to legal sources, five to eight new family affairs are deposited daily, sometimes reaching up to 15 to 20 cases per day.
The courts also helped to reconcile 55 couples, which led to layoffs.
The defenders of family law have cited the increase in the use of social media – Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Messenger and YouTube – as a major contributing factor to the breakdown of marriages.
The availability of modern smartphones to adolescents would have resulted in a 50% increase in love pits and marriages.
Lawyer Sabtan Bukhari noted that family weddings should again be encouraged.
Although getting married outside the family is not wrong, parents must be carefully checked the potential spouses.
He stressed that weddings based on lies tend not to last, especially in the case of fleeing love weddings, which often collapse in the six months to a year.
The secretary of human rights cells, the defender of the Tayyaba Abbasi cell, has urged that if the girls should have access to mobile phones, their use must be monitored. She recommended that he encourage education and approved family and weddings with family.
She added that many women discover after marriage that their spouses, who claimed to be easy or employed, are unemployed or involved in small crimes – rushing to family breakdowns.
Legal experts have suggested strict measures, such as fixing a minimum dowry of 2.5 million rupees and a monthly maintenance of 15,000 rupees in the event of love weddings, with 500,000 additional rupees payable to women in the event of divorce.
They believe that such reforms could help brake the growing trend of broken families.
