Rising divorce drives daily child visits

Separated parents demand better meeting facilities at Rawalpindi Judicial Complex

RAWALPINDI:

With the close of 2025, a record and alarming increase has been witnessed in meetings between divorced parents and their separated children at the family facilitation centre of the Rawalpindi Judicial Complex.

The rise, which continued throughout the year on a monthly basis, is primarily attributed to the growing divorce rate.

Previously, meetings with separated children were allowed once a week on a designated day with the permission of a family judge.

However, due to the sharp increase in the number of divorced couples, such meetings are now being held on a daily basis. According to the in-charge of the family facilitation centre, between 45 and 65 divorced mothers, fathers, grandparents and close relatives visit the centre daily to meet children.

On a weekly basis, 360 to 390 divorced couples visit the facility, while the monthly figure ranges between 9,000 and 10,500. From January 1 to December 31, 2025, a total of 22,185 divorced parents met their estranged children at the centre.

These meetings often present emotional and heart-rending scenes.

Children who live with their mothers after divorce are visited by fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, while children living with fathers—where mothers have remarried—are visited by maternal relatives including grandmothers, grandfathers and aunts.

Parents bring pizzas, burgers, juices, cakes, sweets, chicken roast and pulao for the children, along with toys, garments, shoes, bicycles and cash gifts. Each meeting lasts between 30 and 40 minutes, and at one time, 15 to 20 couples can meet their children at the facility.

Parents and elders visiting the centre voiced serious complaints about the condition of the facility. Visitors including Waris Ali, Masood Khan and Iftikharuddin said the waiting area is completely open to the sky, with cement and iron benches that are impossible to sit on during severe cold.

They said the benches remain wet and dirty due to morning dew and are never cleaned. There is no drinking water facility, and parents are forced to wait under the open sky. A small plastic shed exists, but rainwater enters from all sides, leaving visitors soaked.

They demanded construction of a proper roof, replacement of iron and cement benches with chairs, arrangements for protection from sun and rain, and expansion of the centre to allow at least 50 parents to meet children at one time.

They also called for converting the single-storey building into a triple-storey facility and introducing an online meeting system to ease difficulties.

The parents' central demand was that instead of meetings at court facilitation centres, children should be handed over to the estranged parent twice a month for a full day, against strict guarantees and surety bonds.

They suggested that CNICs and passports of visiting parents and relatives be deposited as security for one day. This, they said, would provide children with a more homely environment during meetings.