Financial liberty isn't a privilege for women; it's a right: SC
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court noted that financial independence is not a concession to women; it is the foundation of their constitutional agency, dignity, and full participation in public life.
'The law must dismantle, not perpetuate, the structures that reduce women to secondary citizens in the eyes of society,' said a five-page judgment authored by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah.
A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Mansoor and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi delivered judgment to an appeal of Chief Commissioner Regional Tax Officer, Bahawalpur against the Lahore High Court (LHC) order dated 21.12.2022.
The question before the bench was whether the right to compassionate employment extended to a widow (respondent) under the Prime Minister's Assistance Package be withdrawn on the pretext that she has subsequently remarried?
Shaheen Yousaf's (respondent) husband, an employee of the Income Tax Department, passed away while in service on 14.02.2006. Under the Prime Minister's Assistance Package for the Families of Deceased Government Employees respondent was appointed as a Lower Division Clerk (LDC) on a two-year contract on 26.05.2010.
The said contract was extended on multiple occasions, however, Shaheen's services were terminated on 04-01-2016 on the basis of office memorandum (OM), which stipulated that upon remarriage, a widow becomes ineligible for any compassionate employment granted under the Prime Minister's Assistance Package and the same shall stand terminated from the date of such remarriage.
The respondent filed a writ petition challenging the said order before the LHC, which allowed the petition and the respondent was reinstated in service.
The judgment said that the 1973 Constitution secures fundamental rights for individuals as equal citizens, not as appendages of patriarchal roles or marital identities. Women are not defined by the men in their lives; they are autonomous and rights-bearing individuals. Denying a woman, the right to employment on the basis of her remarriage is a blatant reinforcement of patriarchal control, seeking to subordinate her legal identity to societal expectations.
The rights of widows should not be viewed as acts of state generosity, but as legal entitlements rooted in constitutional guarantees, statutory protections, and developing judicial principles.
The judgment directed the courts in Pakistan to ensure that public policy reflects that widowhood is not a diminution of identity but a life circumstance deserving of dignity, protection, and equal opportunity and shields widows from both overt and covert forms of systemic discrimination.
The judgment clarified that the apex court verdict in case of General Post Office, Islamabad and others v. Muhammad Jalal (PLD 2024 SC 1276) has struck down the Prime Minister's Assistance Package as unconstitutional but has no application on appointments that have been already made.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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