Muhalaa practice in Pakistani family law

In Pakistan, the provisions of Islamic law are applied in certain areas of family law such as marriage, divorce and custody. Defects in the implementation of the current divorce law in the country and limited separation rights have caused women to suffer from divorce. In order to eliminate these grievances and expand women's divorce rights, muhalaa/khul' was applied. However, in the classical practice of muhalaa/khul', the marriage is terminated by agreement of the parties, whereas in Pakistan this process is done through the judicially. In other words, the marriage is terminated by the court upon the request of the woman, regardless of the consent of the husband. The legal legitimacy of this process, which is called "Judicial Muhalaa/Khul'" in the literature, constitutes one of the important topics of discussion The paper discusses the development of this practice and the debate about its legitimacy.