The Supreme Court on Monday upheld state support for two minor Hindu children, stressing that religious minorities were particularly vulnerable to social and economic hardships. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi, gave this judgment in a matter relating to a family maintenance allowance case titled Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal versus Raj Ram and others. Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb were the other bench members.

The petitioner, Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, had filed an appeal against the December 1, 2022, order passed by the Sindh High Court holding that the paternal grandfather of two minor Hindu children was not personally liable for their maintenance under the applicable family law. The court had directed Bait-ul-Mal to register the minors as regular beneficiaries and pay each of them Rs10,000 per month as maintenance, with an annual increase of 10%, until their marriage.

The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, holding that it saw no reason to interfere with the impugned order. "In view of the foregoing, we see no reason to interfere with the impugned order insofar as it concerns the present case, particularly in view of the willingness expressed by Bait-ul-Mal before us to extend assistance to the two minors," says a 13-page judgment authored by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi.

The court, however, held that for future cases, recourse to Bait-ul-Mal shall be guided by the observations made hereinabove, leaving the nature and extent of assistance to be determined by Bait-ul-Mal in accordance with its applicable statutory and policy framework. The court noted that the two children in question belonged to a religious minority, adding that minorities in Pakistan occupied a particularly vulnerable position, with social and economic hardships often bearing upon them with greater force.