Law: Constitution of Pakistan, 1973

Section: 25(1),25(2)

Constitution of Pakistan-------Art. 25---Employment---Prime Minister's Assistance Package for the Families of Deceased Government Employees---Re-marriage of widow of deceased civil servant---Reinstatement in service---Respondent was appointed as a Lower Division Clerk, under Prime Minister's Assistance Package for the Families of Deceased Government Employees but later on her services were terminated on the ground of her remarriage---High Court reinstated the respondent in service--Validity---Constitution secures fundamental rights for individuals as equal citizens not as appendages of patriarchal roles or marital identities---Women are not defined by the men in their lives; they are autonomous and rights-bearing individuals--Denying a woman right to employment on the basis of her remarriage is a blatant reinforcement of patriarchal control, seeking to subordinate her legal identity to societal expectations---Financial independence is not a concession to women, it is the foundation of their Constitutional agency, dignity, and full participation in public life---Law must dismantle, not perpetuate, the structures that reduce women to secondary citizens in the eyes of society---Impugned office order was discriminatory as it singled out widows, the female spouses of deceased government employees for disqualification from compassionate employment upon remarriage, without imposing a corresponding restriction on widowers, notwithstanding the Prime Minister's Assistance Package which offered compassionate employment to both a widow and a widower---Gender-specific disqualification amounts to direct discrimination based on sex, contravening Articles 25(1) and 25(2) of the Constitution, which guarantee equality before law and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex---Supreme Court declined to interfere in judgment passed by High Court, whereby respondent was reinstated in service---Petition for leave to appeal was dismissed and leave to appeal was refused.Zahida Parveen v. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa C.P.L.A No. 566/2024 2025 SCP 107; Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa v. Syed Sadiq Shah 2021 SCMR 747; Federation of Pakistan v. Shuja Sharif 2023 SCMR 129; Hadayat…