A three-member bench of he Supreme Court returned a woman’s 125-acre property back from her uncle after 34 years.
The bench, led by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, included Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aminuddin Khan, ordered the uncle to pay all costs of litigation to the niece as well.
The chief justice remarked during the case that women rights were being usurped in violation of the constitution and the sharia.
However, when the opposing lawyer asked if a woman’s version was to be believed in every case, Justice Isa said that no special concessions were being given to women.
When the lawyer replied that it was not always the case that men deprived women of their property, Justice Isa said that there had never been a case where a woman had taken the man’s share.
The complainant’s lawyer told the court that the the woman had sold the property to her uncle in 1989 but had disowned her signatures 20 years later and laid a claim to the property.
However, Justice Aminuddin Khan said that the onus of proving the sale of the property was on the buyer, in this case the uncle.
Justice Athar Minallah added that three courts had issued decisions against the complainant.
The woman’s lawyer told the court that his client was a minor at the time when the property changed hands. He also said that Sardar Mansoor, the woman’s uncle, was chairman of a district council and had transferred the property to his family including young children.