The Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has declared unconstitutional the decision of the Punjab government to discontinue family pensions for widowed, divorced and unmarried daughters after the death of their parents who were government employees, and ordered payments to all affected women.
Justice Ahsan Raza Kazmi announced the reserved verdict on a petition filed by Falak Shah and former District Bar Association Rawalpindi president Tanveer Sohail Shah. The court rejected the arguments and material presented by the Punjab Finance Department and the assistant advocate general.
The Finance Department had issued a notification in 2024 limiting eligibility for family pension to widows. As a result, pensions for daughters of thousands of employees across 42 government departments in Punjab were discontinued.
Counsel for the petitioners argued that divorced, widowed and unmarried daughters remain entitled to pensions in all other provinces of Pakistan, while the notification deprived women in Punjab of this right.
They maintained that it violated Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality among citizens, and amounted to discriminatory treatment of daughters in the province. Accepting these arguments, the court annulled the notification and ordered the restoration of family pensions for all eligible daughters in Punjab.
