عدالتی خلع پر فتوی کے مختلف رجحانات کا تنقیدی جائزہ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Critical Analysis of Various Trends of Fatwa over Judicial Khula‘

Abstract

After the colonial period and advent of national governments in the Muslim world, efforts were made in many countries to uniform and codify the Muslim personal law. While doing so, provisions were also made in some countries to entitle the wife to get her marriage annulled through court upon khula‘ even without the consent of her husband. This is commonly known as judicial khula‘. Initially this concept was totally rejected by the mainstream  religious clerisy on the ground that it is not in line with the spirit of Islamic law and hence, if granted, such khula‘ would be considered invalid. However with the passage of time, keeping in view the ground realities, miseries and difficulties faced by the women some new Fatwa trends have also been emergedwhich are substantially different from the initial instance. This article intends to critically analyze these different trends on the issue of judicial khula‘ with particular reference to Pakistani law. It concludes that it is a Mujatahad f┘h issue and no party has definite evidence for his instance.