Couples who approach us wanting to adopt a child in Pakistan are usually surprised by the first thing we have to tell them: Pakistan does not have adoption in the sense they mean.
That is not a procedural obstacle to be worked around. It is a substantive feature of the applicable personal law, and it shapes everything that follows — the child's name, their inheritance, and what documentation the family will hold.
Guardianship, not adoption
Under the Islamic law applicable to most Pakistani families, adoption does not sever a child's relationship with their biological family or create the legal fiction of natural parentage. A child does not become the biological child of the person raising them.
What Pakistani law provides instead is guardianship, under the Guardians and Wards Act 1890. A court appoints a guardian of the person, of the property, or of both, on the basis of the child's welfare.
Guardianship is real, enforceable and sufficient for most practical purposes: custody and care, schooling, medical decisions, travel with the court's permission, and managing the child's property. It is how kafala-style arrangements are given legal effect here.
What it does not do is make the child your heir by operation of law.
The consequences that matter
Inheritance. A child under guardianship does not inherit from the guardian in the fixed shares that apply to biological children. If you want the child provided for, that must be arranged deliberately — and the ordinary limits apply: a bequest is generally confined to one-third of the estate, and a bequest to an heir requires the other heirs' consent. See who inherits what in Pakistan.
A lifetime gift, properly completed with delivery of possession, is often the more reliable route. See gift, will or sale.
Records. The child's parentage on identity documents does not simply become yours. NADRA records reflect the legal position, and families who assume otherwise encounter difficulty at school admission, at passport application, and later at succession.
Nationality and travel. Guardianship does not by itself confer nationality on the child, nor an automatic right of entry to another country.
The court process
An application under the Guardians and Wards Act is made to the Guardian Court having jurisdiction where the child ordinarily resides. In outline:
- Application, setting out the circumstances and the proposed guardian's suitability
- Notice, including to the biological parents or relatives where they are known and traceable
- Inquiry into the welfare of the child and the applicant's means, character and capacity
- Order appointing the guardian, sometimes with conditions
- Ongoing obligations, particularly where the guardianship extends to property — a guardian of property is accountable, may require the court's permission to deal with it, and may be required to file accounts
Welfare is the governing consideration throughout, as it is in custody proceedings.
Where the child is abandoned or of unknown parentage
Where a child has been left at a hospital or with a welfare organisation, the route generally runs through the child protection framework and the recognised institutions, with the court appointing a guardian.
Approach only established, licensed organisations. Private arrangements to "obtain" a child outside that framework are extremely dangerous — they risk criminal liability for everyone involved, and they leave the family with no lawful documentation and a child whose position can be challenged for years.
If anyone offers to arrange a child for payment, that is a reason to stop and take advice, not to proceed quietly.
For overseas applicants
Pakistani-origin couples living abroad frequently wish to take a child home with them, and this is where the difficulty concentrates.
A Pakistani guardianship order is not an adoption order, and whether your country of residence recognises it — and on what basis it will grant the child entry and status — is a question of that country's law. Several jurisdictions treat guardianship from countries without adoption through a specific and demanding process of their own, sometimes requiring the child to be adopted after arrival.
The court here may also impose conditions on removing a ward from Pakistan, including security and undertakings.
The order in which this must be approached is: establish what your country of residence requires first, then apply here in a way that satisfies it. Couples who obtain a Pakistani order and only then investigate the immigration position frequently find they cannot bring the child, which is a devastating outcome for everybody.
We advise on the Pakistani side and coordinate with immigration advisers in your country of residence. See nationality, CNIC and documentation.
Practical advice
Use lawful channels and licensed institutions only.
Plan for inheritance deliberately — guardianship alone will not provide for the child.
Keep the documentation: the order, the records of the child's origin so far as known, and the identity documents.
If you live abroad, resolve the destination country's requirements before you begin.
And be careful about informal family arrangements, common in Pakistan, in which a child is raised by relatives with nothing recorded. They function until there is a dispute, an inheritance, or a passport application — and then they do not.
How the firm can help
We advise on guardianship and act in applications before the Guardian Courts in Karachi, including for applicants living abroad. We advise on the inheritance and documentation consequences, and prepare the gift, will or trust arrangements that provide for a child who will not inherit automatically.
We will also tell you plainly where the position is difficult, including where a guardianship order is unlikely to achieve what an overseas family needs.
Contact the firm to discuss your circumstances. These matters are handled with discretion and with the child's position as the first consideration.