Besides deceased quota and pension to the family of deceased civil servant, wedlock policy is an important safeguard for the families of civil servants. In February, 2026, the Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan (FCC) held in C.P.L.A.760-P/2025, titled Mst. Salma Raza v. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through Chief Secretary, Peshawar and others, that “wedlock policy does not create a vested right whatsoever; instead, it is a policy, a guiding principle not one that is to be adjudicated upon strictly by the Courts. Ideally, the institutions and departments are to move in line with this policy and not derogate from it on whimsical grounds, but the same cannot be relied upon to disturb our civil bureaucratic structure or the settled jurisprudence on the service laws of our country.”
Thereafter, in May, 2026, the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) held in Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal No.1789/2023, titled Naheeda Aziz v. Chief Secretary, Government of the Punjab, Lahore and another that “once the competent authority issued a wedlock policy, it is their responsibility to implement and adhere to such policy guidelines so that the benefit may be given to all such persons who are covered under the wedlock policy. Its implementation cannot be left in vacuum or at the sole whims and discretion of the competent authority to bestow this benefit or advantage on a pick and choose basis, on the contrary, such policies should have been implemented across the board without any remonstration and discrimination.
The fundamental and inherent structuring of the wedlock policy is indeed deepseated and imbedded on the edicts of Article 35 of the Constitution which calls for the state to protect marriage, the family, the mother, and the child. To retain married couples in the government service together at one and the same station circumvents the involuntary severance of spouses due to different work locations. The policy idiosyncratically concentrates the hardships and miseries that stand in front of working ladies in maintaining the children alone while performing their professional duties far away from the place of posting of spouse.”
Once the competent authority issued a wedlock policy, it is their responsibility to implement and adhere to such policy guidelines so that the benefit may be given to all such persons who are covered under the wedlock policy.
The ambiguity created due to these two different views can be resolved through parliamentary legislation. When there is an ambiguity regarding any law, the courts will clear the ambiguity through interpretation, thereby removing any obstacle, obstruction and obscurity in implementing the said law. But if there is an ambiguity caused by the two different judicial views, then the parliament can remove the ambiguity through legislation.
The ESTACODE deals with the wedlock policy and provides guidelines for the posting of serving husband and wife at the same station; posting of unmarried female government servants at the place of residence of parents or family; posting of married female government servants at the place of residence or posting of their husbands who are not in government employment, while keeping in view the socio-economic problems and hardships faced by men and women in civil services of Pakistan.
Government of Pakistan has protected families of the civil servants under Section 4 of the Maternity and Paternity Leave Act, 2023, which provides that a male employee expecting his wife to give birth to a child shall, at his option, be granted paternity leave on full pay not exceeding thirty days outside his leave account from the date of its commencement. The section further provides that such paternity leave may not be granted for more than three times in the entire service of the male employee, except when such leave is granted within his leave account due and admissible to him or as an extra ordinary leave without pay.
The Rule 20A of the Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules, 1973, states that posting of serving husband and wife at the same station, unmarried female government servants at the place of residence of their parents/family and that of married female government servants at the place of residence/posting of their husbands who are not in government employment shall be exempted from the said rule.
In February 2026, the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection against Harassment ruled that fathers are entitled to paternity leave following the birth of a child, emphasising that childcare is not solely a woman’s responsibility, in a case of a bank officer, whose request for 30 days of paternity leave was denied. In 2019, after the police department, the Government of Sindh began applying 10 days paternity leave to its male employees. Family is protected under article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Under the leadership of the UN, family as a right has been recognised and referred in the 1994, the General Assembly celebrated the International Year of the Family; the paragraph 5.8 of the outcome document of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development; the Programme of Action of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development; the 1999, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) produced a report titled “The Family in International and Regional Human Rights Instruments”; and the Target 5.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals. In fact, the International Humanitarian Law (or the Law of War) also recognises family as a right. Besides international commitments, Pakistan is bound to protect family under Article 35 of the Constitution, and therefore, it is the duty of the parliament to clear the ambiguity about wedlock policy and protect the families of civil servants.