Islamabad:
In the event of the dissolution of a marriage, the amount of the interview that a mother obtains from her former husband for a child depends both on the nature and the extent of the “reasonable requirements” of the child and the father’s financial means.
In a recent five -page verdict, the Supreme Court established directives to determine the amount of maintenance to be received for a child after the dissolution of a marriage.
The chief judge of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and judge Shakeel Ahmad heard the case with the junior judge writing the verdict. The judgment noted that maintenance traditionally includes food, accidents and accommodation. However, this list is not exhaustive.
He said that in the evolution of societal standards and the global principle of the minor’s well-being, the term must be widely interpreted to encompass all the reasonable expenses necessary for the child’s physical, mental and emotional development. “This includes, among other things, educational costs, health care and other needs in accordance with natural growth and the comfort of the minor,” said the verdict.
He said that the amount provided should reflect the social status of the family, ensuring that the child is not deprived of development and well-being possibilities only due to the dissolution of marriage.
“The second consideration concerns the father’s financial capacity to maintain the child. According to Islamic principles, the maintenance obligation is generally subject to certain conditions.”
According to the verdict, first of all, the child must be in need. If the child has sufficient independent means for his own support, the father’s duty to provide an interview does not arise.
“Second, the child must be unable to win due to a minority or incapacity. Third, the father must have the means to provide such an interview,” he said.
The judgment noted that if most of the Islamic thought schools agree that the father’s financial capacity is a necessary prerequisite, the Hanafi school argues that, in the case of children, the obligation to maintain is independent of real wealth, provided that the father has the capacity to win.
He said that the simple fact that the father does not work, in the absence of serious mental or physical challenges, cannot be admitted as a valid justification for his inability to pay the obligation of maintenance towards his children.
“In the circumstances where the father does not have the means to provide an interview and is unable to win due to real limitations, the duty to keep children can take off on the mother if she is in a position of financial ease.
“If no parent has sufficient means, the obligation can extend to the paternal grandfather, subject to his financial capacity to provide support for children,” he added.
