The Lahore High Court passed a new law stating that children cannot evict their parents. Children evicting parents can face up to one year of jail time.
On the other hand, parents can ask their children to leave the premises anytime. The child will have a week to leave or face a fine and one month in jail. The ruling comes under the Tahaffud-e-Walidain Ordinance or Protection of Parents Ordinance that grants these rights.
The decision came during a hearing of a case where a man challenged his father. The man named Ali Ikram told his father to leave the house. The court then ordered the authorities to take action. Ali Ikram challenged this in court. But the court, after hearing all arguments, ruled in favour of the father.
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“A child could not remove parents from the house if he is a tenant or a house owner, and eviction of parents from the house will be an infraction,” Justice Ali Baqar Najafi wrote in his ruling.
“A child will be liable for a one-year jail term and fine over the eviction of parents,” according to the court verdict.
“Parents could remove offspring from their home at any time. A child must leave the house within seven days or to face a jail term of one month,” the court further said.
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Old people’s home in Pakistan is strange: Religious leader
Important to note, President Arif Alvi promulgated an ordinance in May to protect parents from being forcibly evicted by the children as the Parents Protection Ordinance (PPO) 2021 renders the act punishable by jail term or fine or both.
The ordinance came as Pakistan reported increasing cases of abandoned senior citizens in welfare homes. Moreover, the concept of old-age homes is mainly Western as in Pakistan the cultural and religious norm is that children become the primary caregivers during the parents’ old age i.e. providing them with housing and ensuring all their needs are met. However, the country reported increasing incidents of elder abuse.
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Due to the cases of elder abuse, old age homes were constructed to provide sanctuary to the senior citizens who had no place else to go.
Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal is going to establish an Old Age Home in Islamabad to accommodate the shelter-less and abandoned senior citizens. Further, there will be community centre for the welfare of 500 senior citizens to engage them in different healthy activities.
— Senator Aon Abbas Buppi (@AonAbbasPTI) October 24, 2019
Qibla Ayaz of the Council of Islamic Ideology said: “It is a strange thing that we are making old people’s homes now. That we are pushing our parents out of our homes. It is against the teachings of the Holy Quran.”