For decades, custody disputes have often been approached as a contest between two parents:Who should get custody?Perhaps we need to ask a different question:What arrangement best serves the child?A child is not property to be divided between parents after a marriage breaks down.And a father does not become a stranger to his child merely because […]

In custody disputes, we often describe one parent as the “custodial parent” and the other as the “non-custodial parent.” The terminology can quietly shape the way we think. One parent becomes the parent who has the child. The other becomes the parent who is given access. But custody determines residence and day-to-day care. It does

The question of when a child is ‘old enough’ to be heard in custody proceedings is deceptively simple. In Pakistan, Section 17(3) of the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 permits courts to consider the preference of a minor ‘old enough to form an intelligent preference,’ yet provides no objective criterion for determining when such capacity

Dear Esteemed Seniors and Learned Colleagues, The ongoing evolution of family law jurisprudence increasingly challenges our traditional approach to domestic litigation. While Section 5 of the West Pakistan Family Courts Act, 1964 read with its Schedule vests exclusive jurisdiction over child custody, our foundational substantive law remains the colonial-era Guardians and Wards Act, 1890. Despite

Introduction Parental alienation constitutes a multifaceted psychological phenomenon that most commonly arises in the context of high-conflict custody disputes. Initially conceptualized by R. A. Gardner as Parental Alienation Syndrome, the construct describes situations in which a child persistently rejects one parent as a result of intense interparental conflict, combined with systematic indoctrination by the favored