Lahore
Family Lawyer in Lahore
Divorce, khula, custody, guardianship and maintenance — handled from our Lahore chambers.
Family disputes are personal before they are legal. Whether you are ending a marriage, trying to see your children, or seeking maintenance that has stopped arriving, the first thing you need is a clear picture of where you stand — not a sales pitch.
Global Law Company is a Lahore firm. Our office is on Fane Road at Mozang Chungi, a short distance from the Lahore High Court and the district courts, and family matters are one of the three areas the firm concentrates on. We act for husbands and wives, parents and guardians, and for overseas Pakistanis whose family matter has to be dealt with at home.
Who we help
We act for spouses seeking or responding to a divorce or khula; parents in custody, visitation and guardianship disputes; wives and children pursuing maintenance; and families recovering dower (haq mehr) and dowry articles. We also advise before anything is filed, where the question is simply whether a claim is worth bringing at all.
Many of our family clients come to us after a first lawyer has gone quiet on them. If your matter is already part-heard, we will tell you honestly whether changing counsel will help or simply cost you time.
Pakistan law · reported authority · practical assessment
Family Law in Lahore: applicable law and case brief
What decides this service
Custody and guardianship are decided by the Guardian Court under the Guardians and Wards Act 1890; dissolution, dower, dowry articles and maintenance go to the Family Court under the Schedule to the Family Courts Act 1964. What usually decides the outcome is not the statute but the record built at trial: the Family Courts Act gives no second appeal, so once the District Court has decided the facts on appeal the High Court will intervene only where evidence has been misread or left unread.
Applicable Pakistani legal framework
These are the principal enactments to test at the start of a family law in lahore matter. Amendments, rules, special regimes, and provincial application still depend on the facts and location.
- Guardians and Wards Act 1890
- Governs appointment of a guardian and custody of a minor. Section 17 makes the minor's welfare the paramount consideration; sections 7, 12 and 25 carry the powers the Guardian Court exercises in practice.
- Family Courts Act 1964
- Gives the Family Court exclusive jurisdiction over the matters in its Schedule (section 5) and fixes the sequence: intimation to the defendant under section 8, written statement under section 9, the pre-trial hearing under section 10 at which the court attempts a compromise, then evidence under section 11.
- Family Courts (Amendment) Act 2015 (XI of 2015)
- Rewrote section 10 and inserted subsections 10(5) and 10(6) on dower in a khula decree, along with section 17-A, which puts a suit for maintenance on a faster footing than other family claims.
- Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939
- Sets out the grounds on which a wife may seek dissolution, including cruelty under section 2(ii)(ix) — the ground most often pleaded, and the one hardest to prove.
Statute titles checked in PakistanLawSite on 11 September 2026; descriptions are original editorial summaries.
Sayed Arshad Shah v Additional District Judge
PLD 2026 Lahore 332
- Court
- Lahore High Court (Rawalpindi Bench)
- Decided
- 28 November 2025
The legal question
Where the Guardian Court has handed a 13-year-old back to his biological parents, can that be set aside because the courts below never meaningfully weighed what the child himself wanted?
What the Court held
Yes. Under section 17 the minor's welfare is paramount, and once a child is old enough his own intelligent preference forms part of it. The judge called the minor to court, gave him a week with his biological parents so the preference would be an informed one, then asked him again — both times he said he wished to remain with the foster family who had raised him for nine years. The courts below had recorded that statement and passed over it without giving any reason. Custody was restored to the foster parents, with liberty to the biological parents to seek a meeting schedule.
Practical implication
A custody case is not won on who is the natural guardian or who holds hizanat. It is won on the child's settled circumstances — the household, the siblings, the schooling he actually knows — and on making sure his own voice is not merely recorded but reasoned with. As the Court put it, listening to a child does not mean obeying him; it means understanding his perspective well enough to act in his interest.
What we establish first
- How long the present arrangement has run, and whether the other side objected at any point while it did.
- Whether the Guardian Court recorded the minor's own statement, and whether it gave reasons for accepting or rejecting it.
- The household the child would be moved into — who is in it, and whether he knows any of them.
This is an original editorial summary of a reported decision verified in PakistanLawSite on 11 September 2026. It is a research starting point, not a prediction or legal advice; outcomes depend on the current law, evidence, and facts of each matter.
Speak with a lawyer at Global Law Company
Need help with family law in Lahore? Book a confidential consultation. Reach us directly and we will respond within 4 business hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. We act for either spouse, and for parents on both sides of a custody dispute. Where we already act for one party in a matter, we cannot act for the other.
Family matters frequently involve a party who is outside Pakistan, and we regularly act for and against overseas parties. How service and attendance are handled depends on the specific matter, which we will set out for you at the first consultation.
The first consultation can be held at our office on Fane Road in Mozang Chungi, or by phone or WhatsApp if travelling is difficult. Some steps in a family case do need you there in person, and we will tell you at the outset which ones those are.
We price defined tasks at a fixed fee wherever that is possible, and use a sensible arrangement for contested work. You are told what a stage costs before it starts, and the consultation fee is explained when you call rather than after.
You deal with the advocate running your matter rather than being passed to a clerk, and we tell you at the outset who that is.