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<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ruled that a woman&rsquo;s marriage cannot disqualify her from employment under the quota reserved for children of civil servants who die or become incapacitated while in service, setting aside a ruling by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a judgment by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, the Supreme Court held that the marital status of a daughter &ldquo;has no legal relevance&rdquo; to her eligibility under Rule 10(4) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion, and Transfer) Rules, 1989. The bench declared that excluding married daughters from the quota &ldquo;offends the constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination&rdquo; under Articles 14, 25, and 27 of the Constitution.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;The marital status of the child, whether male or female, is wholly immaterial,&rdquo; Justice Shah wrote. &ldquo;The rationale of the rule is compensatory and benevolent, it aims to provide financial continuity to the affected family, not to assess or penalize the marital status of the child.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The court emphasized that the quota is &ldquo;a recognition of the parent&rsquo;s dedication to public service&rdquo; and &ldquo;the State&rsquo;s means of extending continuity of livelihood to the family.&rdquo; Justice Shah added that &ldquo;to deny this benefit to a married daughter on the ground of her marriage is to misread the object of the rule.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ruling came in response to a petition filed by Farakh Naz, whose appointment as a primary school teacher in Karak was withdrawn after she got married. The District Education Officer acted under a departmental clarification stating that a married daughter was ineligible for the deceased or incapacitated employee quota.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rejecting that view, the Supreme Court said that such executive instructions were &ldquo;devoid of lawful authority&rdquo; and &ldquo;rest on outdated social stereotypes.&rdquo; &ldquo;If a son&rsquo;s marriage does not disqualify him or interrupt the flow of financial benefit to the family, there is no rational basis to hold that a daughter&rsquo;s marriage should have that effect,&rdquo; the judgment noted.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The bench further observed that &ldquo;the assumption that a daughter, by reason of her marriage, ceases to be connected with or concerned for her parental family is misconceived and rests on outdated social stereotypes.&rdquo;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The judgement reiterated that the Constitution of Pakistan &ldquo;is gender-neutral in its recognition of fundamental rights and does not draw a distinction between a man and a woman, or a son and a daughter, in the enjoyment of their entitlements.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It further adds, &quot;Being married is not a disqualification that strips a woman of her personhood or her constitutional entitlements; marriage merely alters her legal status, not her fundamental rights. A woman like a man is a &#39;person&#39; under the Constitution &ndash; and this constitutional status of her personhood remains undisturbed through marriage or divorce.&quot;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The court also highlighted long-held assumptions about women&rsquo;s dependency, stating that, &quot;The view that a daughter (and not the son) is always dependent upon her father and thereafter as a wife is always dependent upon her husband is constitutionally unsustainable.&quot; It observed that such a view &ldquo;undermines her individuality and erodes her identity as a person in her own right.&rdquo;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quoting legal scholar Martha C. Nussbaum, the judgment added that &ldquo;a society that denies women equal opportunities for full human functioning denies itself justice.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;This constitutional framework acknowledges that women have historically faced systemic disadvantage and therefore deserve additional support to ensure substantive equality,&rdquo; the judgment stated.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;Yet, despite this constitutional protection, the petitioner has been denied her rightful claim to the quota reserved for the children of a deceased or incapacitated parent on the ground of her marriage &mdash; a denial that stands in stark contradiction to both the text and spirit of the Constitution,&rdquo; it added.

A man walks past the Pakistan's Supreme Court building in Islamabad on October 23, 2024. 

Economy

The SC has ruled that a woman’s marriage cannot disqualify her from employment under the quota reserved for children of civil servants who die or become incapacitated while in service, setting aside a ruling by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal.

Articles tagged with "Gender Equality"

Marital status has ‘no legal relevance’ to women’s job rights: Supreme Court

Marital status has ‘no legal relevance’ to women’s job rights: Supreme Court