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urat ka ghar kaunsa? (Which home can a woman claim as her own?) The refrain from a play aired 14 years ago on PTV still echoes every time a woman is thrown out of her home. On August, 12, Pakistan Peoples Party member Sharmila Farouqi tabled a bill in the National Assembly proposing to criminalise such eviction and proposing legal protection for those facing it.
The proposed law recognises the women’s right to residential security and will make its denial a criminal offence. It proposes thus to fill a gap in the country’s criminal code. While women’s rights to inheritance, dowry and domestic abuse have been explicitly dealt in statutary provisions, there has been no explicit legal remedy for women forced onto streets, many along with their children. The legal gap is sought to be addressed by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The legislation could prove a turning point in the enforcement of women’s rights in Pakistan.
The bill sets to align the legal norm in the country with norms elsewhere that recognise a women’s right to residence as being fundamental to her dignity. The bill proposes that unlawful eviction of women by their husbands or other family members be dealt with as a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment for three to six months and a fine of Rs 200,000. The bill proposes that such cases be handled by a first-class magistrate, making justice accessible and immediate.
The passage of the proposed bill could signal a broad policy shift in Pakistan’s approach to women’s rights. The bill explicitly makes the state the guarantor of women’s residential security. This is a shift in approach. The responsibility has previously rested with financial providers and social protectors. Obviously, the passage of the bill alone will not ensure effective enforcement. From a governance perspective, in order to ensure that the bill does not remain largely symbolic, law enforcement, judicial authorities and social welfare authorities will need to own their roles so that the protection proposed in the law is actually achieved.
The legislation will bring Pakistani law more in line with the country’s commitment to the international framework Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The bill sets out to align the legal norm in the country with norms elsewhere that recognise a women’s right to a secure residence as fundamental to her dignity. The bill proposes to criminalise the unlawful eviction of women by their husbands or other family members.
The proposed legislation rejects oppressive social norms that propagate conditionality of women’s residence on marriage, submission and family’s goodwill. Economic dependence means that a minor disagreement, an unmet dowry demand or a husband’s whim can render women and their children homeless. Most women facing such a situation end up returning to an often unwelcome space at their parents’ home. The alternative is seeking refuge in socially stigmatised shelter homes. Their baggage includes a failure assigned by the society. The husband’s authority and autonomy remains unquestioned. This law will firmly establish the household as a site of legal entitlement.
To be effective and have the intended impact on the society, the law will require implementation in letter and spirit.
Lawyer Hamid Rashid Gondal, an advocate of the Supreme Court, warns, “This bill could force some couples to seek divorce prematurely. There have been instances where couples lived separately for several years before reconciling. The looming threat of imprisonment could become a catalyst for divorce.”
Not every woman so evicted, says Gondal, might wish for a divorce. Not every woman thrown out of her home will have the resources required for litigation. Not every woman going through such turmoil will have the support and protection from family members. This could unnecessarily endanger lives. An unacceptably large number of women are already killed in Pakistan in the name of ‘honour.’ Pakistan also lacks a functional system of public defenders despite the Punjab Public Defenders Service Act, 2007, and the Public Defender and Legal Aid Office Ordinance, 2009.
Effective ordinances might be required to ensure that women lacking financial means are guaranteed legal representation as a right. The bill might add a provision for temporary protection orders and residence rights for women who do not wish to seek divorce. This must be coupled with formal legal notices clearly stating strict penalties for any attempts at further intimidation or harm.
Beyond the legal, policy and social dimensions - stories of displacement are unfortunate tales of humiliation and survival. Abandonment without any support makes the trauma of eviction greater than that of the loss of a roof. It then becomes a crisis compounding instability, insecurity and loss of identity. By criminalising eviction, the bill acknowledges what the social norms have long denied - a woman’s home is hers by right, not by permission. If passed and imposed properly, this bill will create a new reality i.e. women as rightful occupants of their homes and not perpetual outsiders who might be thrown out any time.
Ayesha Chaudhary, a communication andinformation warfareresearcher, is currently pursuing her Master’s in Global Communication at Universität Erfurt