ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday said that a woman could claim inheritance in her parents’ property during her life time and not after the death.

A three member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial said this while hearing the appeal against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) judgment. The bench upheld the judgment of PHC.

The sons of a deceased woman from Peshawar claimed share in their maternal grandfather Isa Khan’s property. According to the details, Isa Khan had transferred his property among his sons, but did not give share to either of his daughters. The daughters also did not claim their right on their father’s property during their lifetime. After their death the sons filed a suit before the civil court, Peshawar in 2004 to claim their share in their maternal grandfather’s property.

The civil court announced the decision of the suit in favour of the boys. However, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) nullified the civil court’s judgment in favour of the grandchildren.

Justice Bandial said that in the inheritance law the women’s right of inheritance is protected. However, he said that a woman’s inheritance can only be claimed during her lifetime and her children cannot lay a claim after her death. “We have to look at what happens if women give up their rights or do not claim,” Justice Bandial said.

A division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Yahya Afridi heard the case wherein a sister was being deprived of inheritance. Justice Isa while authoring the judgment said that the adage prevention is the best medicine and equally applicable when female rights are impaired.

The judgment stated, “The state must ensure the protection of rights which is far easier, cheaper and less wasteful of public resources than restoring rights through the courts, which is laborious, expensive and needlessly wasteful of resources. This is all the more disconcerting in an Islamic Republic, the Constitution of which specifically protects property rights and enables the making of ‘special provision for the protection of women and children.”

The court noted that it is extremely regrettable that in Pakistan male heirs continue to deprive female heirs of their inheritance by resorting to different tactics and by employing dubious devices.