Child Maintenance in Pakistan: Rights, Amount and Court Procedure

Child maintenance (nafaqa of the minor) is the financial support a parent is legally obliged to provide for a child's living costs. It is a right that belongs to the child, claimed through the parent who has the child's day-to-day care, and it exists independently of the parents' relationship with each other: a custody dispute, a divorce, or a khula does not extinguish the child's right to be maintained.

The obligation rests on personal law as applied in Pakistan, and the procedure for claiming it runs through the Family Courts under the Family Courts Act, 1964, which lists maintenance among the matters those courts decide. The protection of the family and the welfare of children are also constitutional commitments under Article 35 of the Constitution.

For Muslim families in Pakistan, the father is ordinarily the parent legally responsible for maintaining his minor children. That responsibility does not depend on whether he lives with the child, whether the marriage subsists, or whether he has custody: a father who is not the custodian still owes maintenance.

The duration of the obligation depends on the applicable law and the facts. Maintenance for a child is generally assessed while the child is a minor, and courts assess claims involving older or special-needs children on their own facts. Where the father is unable to pay, responsibility may in defined circumstances fall on other relatives in the order recognised by personal law. Because these questions are fact-specific, the honest answer is usually that the court will assess the particular family's situation.

Maintenance is not a single payment for 'support' in the abstract. It is meant to cover the child's actual living needs, and the categories courts weigh most often are these:

• Food and daily sustenance for the child
• Clothing appropriate to the season and the family's standard of living
• Housing: the child's share of accommodation consistent with the family's circumstances
• Education: school fees, books, uniforms and related costs
• Healthcare: routine medical care, medicines and treatment needs
• Transport and other recurring costs directly connected to the child's schooling or care

Two principles run through all of these. First, the standard of maintenance is measured against the child's needs and the family's own standard of living, not a bare subsistence figure. Second, every category is only as strong as the evidence behind it, which is why the documents listed later in this guide matter as much as the claim itself.

There is no fixed statutory amount and no universal percentage in Pakistani law. The Family Court assesses the child's needs on one side and the parent's financial capacity on the other, and fixes a monthly amount from the facts proved. The child's age, schooling and health, the standard of living the child was accustomed to, and the payer's income and obligations all feed into that assessment.

This is the point where online calculators mislead people. A tool can estimate what a child's needs cost per month; it cannot know what evidence will show, what income can be proved, or how a judge will weigh the family's circumstances. Our child maintenance estimator is built honestly for that limited purpose: to organise and estimate the child's real monthly expenses, with a clear disclaimer that it does not predict a court award.

A maintenance case does not have to finish before money starts flowing. The Family Court can order interim maintenance during the proceedings, assessed on the material available at that stage. For a parent managing a child's day-to-day costs while the case runs, this is often the difference between coping and crisis, so the application should be made at the outset with the supporting documents attached.

A maintenance suit is filed in the Family Court within whose jurisdiction the case properly lies, typically where the defendant resides or where the cause of action arises. The plaint sets out the relationship, the child's needs, and the amount claimed. The Family Courts Act 1964 is designed for speed: proceedings are meant to be comparatively informal, with the court taking an active role in narrowing the issues.

1. 1

   Prepare the claim

   Set out the parties, the child's particulars, the expenses claimed category by category, and the total monthly amount sought, with arrears where applicable.

2. 2

   Attach the documents

   School fee records, medical bills, rent or housing evidence, and proof of the defendant's income and standard of living.

3. 3

   Seek interim maintenance

   Apply for interim support with the filing so the child's costs are covered while the case proceeds.

4. 4

   Evidence and hearing

   Produce your evidence and cross-examine the defendant's; the court assesses needs against means and fixes the amount.

5. 5

   Order and enforcement

   The court announces the maintenance order, which can be enforced if it is not paid.

A maintenance order is enforceable, and arrears accumulate where payments are skipped. Enforcement runs through the Family Court's own powers, which include execution proceedings against the defaulter. Where the payer lives abroad or hides income, enforcement planning should start at the filing stage, not after the first default.

Maintenance can also be revised. If the child's needs rise, or the payer's circumstances change materially, either side can approach the court for adjustment rather than simply stopping payment, which only creates arrears and enforcement risk.