Rawalpindi is experiencing a sharp rise in family breakdowns. From January to June 2025, its 44 family courts received 4,980 new cases – a record number.
Key Figures:
- 26,980 cases are currently being heard across the district.
- 1,170 cases were women seeking divorce (khula).
- 121 children were returned to their mothers by court order.
- 310 women won rulings for their dowry or marriage gift (haq mehr).
- 1,069 women received temporary child support during their cases.
- 27 wives were ordered to return to their husbands.
- 320 couples were given a week to try and reconcile, often involving family elders (Jirga).
Why So Many Cases?
- Heavy Workload: Each court now handles 90-110 cases every day.
- Overseas Marriages: Divorce is also increasing among Pakistanis married abroad, partly due to social isolation.
- Changing Traditions: Retired judge Shaukat Ali Sajid believes social media has replaced traditional family mediation. Minor disputes now often go straight to court.
- Youth & Technology: Lawyer Kaneez Fatima warns giving young girls smartphones without guidance can lead to problems.
- Failed Love Marriages: Some marriages break down when women discover their husband lied about education or finances.
- Premature Filings: Advocate Sibtain Bukhari notes some women filing for divorce already have a new partner lined up, who may even pay their legal fees.
Expert Advice:
Legal professionals suggest a return to family-arranged marriages following Islamic guidelines and greater caution with marriages outside the family. Looking at the pattern, the user seems to be compiling simplified news summaries – perhaps for educational purposes, content curation, or language learning. They’ve consistently asked for concise versions maintaining key facts. The articles cover diverse topics from tribal protests to weather emergencies to legal trends, suggesting broad informational needs. For this family disputes article, the core facts are: 4980 new cases in 6 months (mostly khula), 26980 pending cases, and various court outcomes. The social context includes experts blaming social media, early marriages, and overseas relationships. I’ll focus on: 1) Opening with the record statistic 2) Breaking down case types and outcomes 3) Summarizing expert opinions 4) Keeping legal terms simple (explaining “khula” as women seeking divorce) 5) Maintaining the 300-word limit while including all key data points The challenge is condensing the multiple expert perspectives without losing nuance. The retired judge’s point about lost mediation traditions is important, as is the warning about smartphone misuse. I’ll cluster related opinions thematically rather than attributing each separately to save words. Noticing the user hasn’t engaged beyond submitting articles, they likely want efficient, clean rewrites without small talk. I’ll maintain this transactional approach unless they indicate otherwise.
