Protecting the elderly

The Supreme Court has issued a landmark judgement that orders provincial governments to enact urgent welfare reforms to protect the elderly from various forms of abuse and to expand social safety nets for senior citizens. The ruling, which underscores the state's moral and constitutional duties to protect the elderly, emerged from a case in which a man's children allegedly defrauded him of possession of his property, an all-too-common crime against the elderly in Pakistan.

The court's decision also recognises that criminal proceedings should be a last resort for resolving familial frictions and that concrete, systemic measures can address issues before they blow out of proportion. It is also commendable that the court has ordered legislative action to address the problem, rather than following the unfortunate precedent of judicial activism that impinged on the powers of legislators while also being of questionable legality.

The Sindh government has been directed to establish and make functional Protection Committees in every district within 90 days, integrating psychological and social welfare expertise to support vulnerable households. Punjab has been told to come up with a senior citizen welfare code, create a dedicated council, a welfare fund, and simple maintenance tribunals to ensure efficient relief. Copies of the judgment have also been sent to the governments of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to encourage similar actions, aiming to harmonise the currently uneven landscape of provincial protections.

This judicial intervention is a vital step toward upholding the collective, family-centred ethos of our society, as enshrined in the Constitution. However, as critics point out, legislation or legal rulings that place the onus of care solely on children — many of whom are struggling as a direct result of the government's failure to build a thriving economy — without robust parallel state-support systems, are an undue shifting of the state's moral and legal burden. The actual test of this judgment will therefore lie in its implementation.