Know your rights: inheritance rights

ISLAMABAD:

Many people die every day and leave behind property that their heirs end up fighting for in court. This week, The Express Tribune looks at the laws that govern inheritance rights.

There is no specific section in the Constitution of Pakistan that protects inheritance rights. However, the West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat Act, 1962) and Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961, protect the rights of legal heirs.

What Islamic law says

According to Islamic law, legal heirs that are blood relations have a right to a share in property after the death of a person. There are specific verses in Surah An-Nisa which mention the exact formula that must be followed to determine the share in inheritance.

Kinds of property

There are two kinds of properties that the legal heirs have the right to get: movable property, which includes cash and stock, and immoveable property, which includes land, house and vehicle.

Three documents are necessary to get share in a property: a death certificate issued by the municipality, a succession certificate issued by a court and a receipt issued by the local graveyard.

The succession certificate allows legal heirs to establish ownership of movable assets, such as bank deposits, certificates and bonds, stocks, insurance amount, etc. The legal heirs need a death certificate of the deceased along with details of subject assets, computerised national identity card of the legal heirs filing the application and to furnish the requisite surety.

Similarly, heirship certificates are used to determine the inheritance of property in the absence of a will of a deceased person in many foreign jurisdictions. The certificates are used in a situation where there is no dispute regarding the succession of the estate. If there is anyone who believes that he or she, too, is a legal heir, the legal heirship certificate will be denied and the appropriate proceedings will be instituted in court.

Heirship certificates are used during the probate process which can be issued to receive payments that the government owes to the heirs of the deceased person, and other areas of inheritance. It is an informal and non-binding certificate and may be challenged in court if a dispute should arise as to heirship of the estate. When employing a legal heirship certificate, the person who makes the affidavit should be certain there are no disputes between the parties who assert claims to the estate of the deceased.

Ownerless property

Any property that has no rightful owner will go to the province or the federal government under Article 172 of the Constitution. In Pakistan, few cases are reported that are about properties with owners, said Barrister Afzal Hussain, who deals with inheritance cases in Islamabad courts.

He explained that the majority of people are unaware of inheritance rights and hire lawyers to get property. In most cases, daughters and sisters surrender their inheritance rights, he added.

Last will

The will left by the deceased plays an important role in inheritance rights. According to Islamic laws, the will is a legal document that confers the interest up to a maximum of one-third of the entire property. Anything more than one-third can be challenged by the legal heirs in court.

The will is applicable to those people who are otherwise not entitled to a share under the law.

If any department refuses the right of the deceased, such as pension and old-age benefits, the deceased’s family can challenge it in the labour court by filing a grievance petition.

For those living abroad and fighting inheritance cases in Pakistan, the law allows them to give power of attorney to someone else. The Pakistani embassy or consulate will first attest the document before it is verified by the Foreign Office and then it can be submitted in court.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2014.