Record family cases filed as courts reopen

Rawalpindi's family courts receive 214 new cases on the first day after summer recess

RAWALPINDI:

After a 30-day summer recess, all sessions, civil, family, magistrate and special courts across Rawalpindi Division and the rest of Punjab reopened on Tuesday.

As soon as the family courts resumed proceedings, 214 new cases involving divorce, khula, dowry articles and dower were filed in 27 family courts across Rawalpindi district on the first day, marking a record number.

The number of new family cases filed before the summer recess will be known today (Wednesday). Christian women were also among those who approached the courts seeking divorce.

Senior Civil Judge Rawalpindi admitted all newly filed family cases for hearing and referred them to the respective family courts for trial.

A large number of women seeking divorce included newly married brides who had left their homes to marry without their families' consent or had entered into court marriages.

Eighteen men also approached the courts seeking orders to restore their marriages, stating that their wives had left for their parents' homes after disagreements and had been living there for several weeks. They requested the courts to direct their wives to return and resume their marital lives.

According to the cases filed by women seeking divorce, a majority had met their husbands through friendships formed on TikTok and other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Messenger, before marrying them. Many of these marriages ended within three to six months.

The women attributed the breakdowns to incompatible and allegedly dishonest marriages, claiming that most of their husbands subsequently turned out to be unemployed, idle or poorly educated.

Meanwhile, with the reopening of the sessions, civil, magistrate and special courts, the production of accused persons from Adiala Jail before the courts also resumed after a month-long break.

The reopening restored activity to the district courts, with a large number of lawyers returning to work. Litigants and accused persons also appeared before the courts in significant numbers on Tuesday.