All you need to know about the property inheritance laws in Pakistan

This blog will act as a complete guide for you if you're looking for a procedure of property inheritance laws and distribution.

Death is a significant and inevitable part of life, but have you ever thought that our grandparents and parents owned a property die? What will be the scenario after that?

Don't worry; this blog has all the details related to property inheritance laws in Pakistan.

As per Pakistan inheritance laws, individuals with sound minds deserve to inherit a property, whether it is moveable or not.

According to the Muslim inheritance law, legal heirs are blood relatives who receive property shares after the owner's death.

However, the values of these shares vary with sects and sub-sects.

Type of property

There are two types of properties or assets legal heirs might inherit. Movable assets include cash, vehicles and gold whereas immovable assets mainly include property.

Islamic Surah on Distribution of Inheritance

Surah Nissa's ayat number 11 & 12 narrates the complete and accurate Islamic way of property distribution. It helps in calculating the right share of each heir in the property.

Laws

Below two laws protect the right of inheritance in Pakistan.

1. Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961

2. The West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law, 1962

Documents Required

Here's the list of the documents you need to obtain the "WirasatNama" (Document issued by the Court) in Pakistan.

1. National identity card of the deceased

2. National identity cards of the heirs

3. Statement of heirs

4. Death certificate issued by the municipality

5. Receipt issued by the local graveyard

6. An independent witness

7. Public advertisement and issued legal notices

8. Mutation or registry of immovable property

Inheritance Tax

There's no inheritance tax in Pakistan

Court Fees?

The Court charges 7% fees for the whole property transfer case or Amount of Rs.25,000 but not more than this.

Some facts about the law of inheritance in Pakistan

Legal heirs can only distribute the assets after the loans, and other balances of the deceased have been adequately settled.

• In most of the cases, sons receive twice the share of the daughters. Whereas, the formula keeps changing as the wealth distribution depends on the religious affinities.

• The personal property can be gifted to anyone during the owner's life, and no one can challenge it.

• As per the property inheritance laws, if an heir was alive at the property owner's death but passed away before the distribution, their share in the inheritance will be transferred to their heirs.

• According to Section 498A of the Pakistan Penal Code, if someone forces a woman to surrender her claim in the property 'shall be punished with imprisonment for ten years or minimum five years or with a fine of one million rupees or both.'

The procedure of Property Transfer

Once the shares of all the heirs are decided, then heirs along their CNIC and the deceased's death certificate apply to the Court to transfer the property on their name or nominate them in the mentioned property.

The Court's verification procedure starts attended by all the heirs. The Court publishes newspaper's ad regarding the property that if anyone has any issue related to the property or is there any secret heir to the property, come to the Court to claim their right.

After the whole procedure is completed, the Court distributes the shares among the heirs.

For more complicated cases, it is advised to contact a lawyer to resolve the succession issues.

You can view more details in this video