Winning maintenance is the easy half. Thousands of women in Pakistan hold an order for a monthly sum that has never once been paid, and are told - usually by the same person who stopped paying - that there is nothing they can do. There is a great deal they can do, and the machinery is unusually strong.
The order is enforced by the court that made it
You do not file a fresh suit. You go back to the Family Court that passed the decree and file an execution application. That is a critical point, because families are regularly sent away to "file a case" when what they need is an execution petition in a file that already exists.
Attach: a certified copy of the decree, a simple statement of what was ordered and what has actually been received, month by month, and the total arrears claimed. Keep that statement running - it is the single document the whole proceeding turns on.
Section 13: recovery as arrears of land revenue
Section 13 of the Family Courts Act, 1964 is the provision that matters. Where money decreed by a Family Court is not paid, the court may issue a certificate to the Collector, and the amount is then recovered as arrears of land revenue.
That is not a gentle mechanism. Revenue recovery reaches property and money in ways an ordinary civil decree does not, and it is administered by the district revenue machinery rather than by a bailiff. The Act also allows the court to deal with a defaulter by arrest and detention, which in practice is what ends most long-running non-payment.
What the court can actually attach
- Salary. The most effective order in the book. The court can direct the employer to deduct the monthly maintenance at source and remit it. For a government servant, a soldier or anyone in formal employment, this ends the argument permanently. Bring the employer's name and address to court.
- Bank accounts. Attachment requires the bank and branch. An account number is ideal; the CNIC and bank name are usually enough for the court to direct an inquiry.
- Property. Attachment and sale of immovable property, which is where the section 13 revenue route bites hardest.
- Pension and provident fund, subject to the rules that govern them.
- Vehicles and other movables through the bailiff.
Arrest of the defaulter
Where the defaulter has the means and simply will not pay, the court can order detention. Two things decide these applications:
- Proof of means. Show what he earns, what he owns, what he spends. Photographs of a business, a vehicle registration, a property record, social media showing travel - courts respond to evidence that the money exists.
- A clean arrears calculation. Month, amount ordered, amount received, running total. A vague "he has paid nothing for years" is far weaker than a table.
Detention is not a punishment for poverty. A genuinely destitute defaulter will not be jailed - but he also cannot simply stop appearing, and courts are alive to men who become unemployed on paper the week a maintenance order is passed.
The mistakes that cost the most
- Waiting. Arrears do not improve with age, and a defaulter who has gone unchallenged for two years has usually moved assets. File execution the month payment stops, not the year.
- Accepting part payments silently. Take every rupee, but record it and keep the receipt. Partial payment is not a settlement of the balance unless you agree it is.
- Not asking for salary attachment early. It is the cheapest, fastest and most durable remedy, and it is routinely left until last.
- Letting the children's maintenance lapse when the wife remarries. The mother's own maintenance may end; the father's obligation to his children does not.
- Not applying for an increase. Maintenance fixed in 2019 is worth a fraction of that today. The Family Courts Act allows an increase, and many decrees now carry an automatic annual escalation. If yours does not, apply.
If he has left the country
An overseas defaulter is harder but not untouchable. The court can proceed against property and accounts inside Pakistan, service can be effected through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a decree stands whether or not he attends. Where he is a government servant posted abroad, his department is reachable. Where he holds a Pakistani passport, courts have in appropriate cases directed action affecting travel documents - a serious step, but one that exists.
The practical sequence
- Get a certified copy of the decree.
- Prepare the month-by-month arrears statement.
- File execution in the same Family Court.
- Ask, in the same application, for salary attachment if he is employed, and for attachment of any account or property you can identify.
- If nothing moves, press for the section 13 certificate to the Collector and, where the means are proved, for detention.
- Update the arrears statement at every hearing so the figure is never stale.
This article describes general family law procedure in Pakistan and is not advice on any particular decree. Which enforcement route works depends on where the defaulter earns, what he owns and what the record already shows. Consult a family law advocate - execution is one of the areas where good drafting changes the outcome most.