Family Law

Blackmail and Threats by an Ex-Husband, Husband or In-Laws in Pakistan: What the Law Allows You to Do

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Coercion inside a family rarely looks like a stranger's crime. It is a message saying the khula case must be withdrawn, a relative hinting that old photographs will reach your employer, or a promise that the children will be taken to his village or abroad. The law treats each of these as a distinct wrong with its own remedy, and the remedies work best used together rather than one after another. A woman looking for the best criminal lawyer in Karachi to stop an ex-husband's threats usually needs two things at once: a complaint framed under the offence that actually fits, and protection built into the family case she is already fighting. This guide deals with threats and pressure; if private material has already been posted, the removal steps come first.

What the law calls blackmail, threats and pressure

Pakistani law has no single offence called "blackmail". What families describe with that word falls into a handful of offences, and the one that fits depends mostly on what is being demanded of you and how the threat reaches you.

What is said or done	Provision most likely engaged
"Pay me, or give back the gold, or your pictures go to your family"	Extortion, sections 383 to 386 PPC; section 21 PECA where intimate images are involved
"Withdraw the khula or maintenance case, or else"	Criminal intimidation, sections 503 and 506 PPC
"I will tell everyone you are of bad character"	Section 506 PPC (threat to impute unchastity to a woman); section 20 PECA if false claims are published online
Threats against your father or brother	Section 503 PPC covers threats to anyone in whom you are interested; section 506 if the threat is of death or grievous hurt
Repeated calls from new numbers, watching your home or workplace	Section 507 PPC (anonymous threats), section 24 PECA (cyber stalking), stalking under the Sindh Domestic Violence Act
"I will take the children and you will never see them"	Usually answered through the Guardian Court and a protection order, rather than a criminal case alone

The line between extortion and intimidation matters. Extortion under section 383 requires that you are put in fear and thereby dishonestly induced to hand over property, a valuable security, or a signed or sealed document. A demand for money, jewellery, dowry articles or your signature on a waiver of dower sits on that side of the line.

A demand that you stop doing something you are entitled to do, such as pursuing a court case, is criminal intimidation. Section 503 expressly covers a threat of injury to person, reputation or property made to cause someone to omit an act she is legally entitled to do, and the illustration in the section itself is a threat used to stop a person pursuing a civil suit. A threat to drop your khula or maintenance case is close to the textbook example.

The Penal Code offences and their punishments

• Extortion (section 384 PPC): imprisonment of up to three years, or fine, or both. Under section 385, putting a person in fear in order to commit extortion is punishable even if nothing is handed over. Where the fear is of death or grievous hurt, section 386 raises the maximum to ten years.
• Criminal intimidation (section 506 PPC): up to two years, or fine, or both. If the threat is to cause death or grievous hurt, or "to impute unchastity to a woman", the maximum is seven years. That last limb fits the common threat to ruin a woman's name with allegations about her character.
• Anonymous threats (section 507 PPC): where the person hides his identity or the source of the threat, up to two years can be added to the punishment under section 506. Threats sent from unknown numbers or fake accounts by someone you believe is your ex-husband or a relative belong here.
• Section 509 PPC: as substituted by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2009, it covers words, sounds and gestures intended to insult a woman's modesty, and sexual advances or communications intended to annoy, intimidate or threaten. It carries up to three years, or fine, or both.

The sections chosen affect whether the police can act on their own, whether bail is a right, and whether the case can later be compromised. For an offence the Code treats as cognizable, the police register an FIR and investigate. For a non-cognizable offence they record the information and refer you to a Magistrate under section 155 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Do not accept a vague one-line entry. Give the police the exact words used, the date, the medium and any witness, so the record supports the right offences from the start.

When the threats come by phone, WhatsApp or social media

Most family blackmail now runs partly through a phone. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PECA), in its text as amended up to 2025, adds offences that apply whenever an information system is used.

• Section 21 (offences against modesty): clause (c) covers intimidating a person with a sexual act or a sexually explicit image or video, and clause (d) refers expressly to blackmail. A threat to send intimate photographs to your family is caught even if nothing has yet been sent. Punishment is up to five years, or fine, or both, and more for offences against a minor.
• Section 24 (cyber stalking): monitoring, spying, repeated unwanted contact, or taking and distributing photographs or videos without consent, with intent to coerce, intimidate or harass. Up to three years, or fine, or both.
• Section 20 (dignity): intentionally and publicly transmitting information known to be false that intimidates or harms a person's reputation or privacy. Up to three years, or fine, or both.

Section 43 makes the section 21 offence cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable, so it cannot simply be settled between the families. Most other PECA offences, including sections 20 and 24, are non-cognizable, bailable and compoundable. Since the 2025 amendments, only an authorised officer of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) may investigate PECA offences.

The complaint process itself is explained in our guide to cyber harassment complaints under PECA. If the material has already been posted or forwarded, removal becomes urgent; see legal action against leaked videos. Many cases mix both worlds, such as a WhatsApp threat followed by a visit to your parents' house. Then the online incident goes to the NCCIA and the offline one to the police, and the two accounts must match in every detail, because the defence will compare them.

Reporting threats made in person: the police and the Justice of Peace

For threats made face to face, at the door, or through a relative, the starting point is the police station with jurisdiction over the place where the threat was made. Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires the officer in charge to reduce information about a cognizable offence to writing, read it over to you, and have you sign it. Take a short written application, your CNIC, copies (not originals) of messages or recordings, and if possible a relative who witnessed the incident. Ask for a copy of whatever is recorded.

If the police refuse to register an FIR, you can apply under section 22-A(6) of the Code to the Sessions Judge or Additional Sessions Judge acting as ex-officio Justice of Peace, who may direct the police to act. The Supreme Court in Younas Abbas v. Additional Sessions Judge, Chakwal, PLD 2016 SC 581, treated this function as quasi-judicial rather than administrative. The High Court of Sindh, applying Munawar Alam v. Qurban Ali Malano, 2024 SCMR 985, has said such applications should not be decided mechanically, and has refused relief where the application looked mala fide (Criminal Misc. Application No. S-77 of 2025, Sukkur Bench). In a family dispute, expect the other side to say your complaint is a pressure tactic. Dated, specific evidence is what answers that. A direct complaint to a Magistrate remains available where the police route fails.

Counter-cases are common once a complaint is filed. If an FIR is lodged against you or your family in retaliation, read what happens after an FIR is registered and take advice early on bail. Our criminal litigation practice handles both sides of these cases in Karachi.

A protection order under the Sindh Domestic Violence Act, 2013

A criminal case punishes past conduct. A protection order is aimed at stopping the next threat, and in Sindh it comes from the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2013.

Who can apply. An "aggrieved person" is a woman, child or vulnerable person who is or has been in a domestic relationship with the respondent: people who live or have lived together in a household and are related by marriage, blood, kinship or adoption. A husband, an ex-husband and in-laws you lived with all qualify. A cousin who never shared your home probably does not, and the criminal route is then the main option. The petition may be filed by you, by someone you authorise, or with the help of a Protection Officer.

What counts. Section 5 goes well beyond physical violence. It includes criminal intimidation under section 503 PPC, harassment under section 509 PPC, stalking, economic abuse, and emotional and verbal abuse such as threats of malicious prosecution, threats of divorce and false allegations against a woman's character.

Court and timelines. The petition goes to a Judicial Magistrate of the first class where you live or work, or where you last lived together. The first hearing must be fixed within seven days, the respondent has seven days from notice to show cause, and the petition is to be decided within ninety days. Under section 10, the Magistrate may pass interim orders at any stage on your affidavit if the petition shows a prima facie case.

What the order can say. Under section 11, the respondent can be barred from communicating with you in any form, from entering your workplace or the children's school, and from harming relatives or anyone helping you. Police can be directed to assist, and documents and valuables can be ordered returned. That is useful where in-laws hold your CNIC, Nikahnama or the children's papers. Residence orders, monetary relief and temporary custody of children are also available. Breach is a separate cognizable offence under section 15.

In Ghulam Shabbir Kubar v. Mst. Batool (Criminal Misc. Application No. 303 of 2023, decided 31 May 2023), the High Court of Sindh upheld a Karachi Magistrate taking cognizance on a prima facie case supported by voice recordings, and referred to Mst. Hina v. Province of Sindh, PLD 2019 Sindh 363, which urges Magistrates to grant interim relief decisively. An order you are unhappy with is challenged by revision before the Sessions Court, not by writ petition (C.P. No. D-7492 of 2022, decided 4 May 2023).

Using the threats in your khula, maintenance or custody case

Threats made to force you to give up a case are evidence in that case. In a suit for dissolution, cruelty under section 2(viii)(a) of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 includes conduct that makes a wife's life miserable even if it is not physical ill-treatment. A documented pattern of threats can support dissolution on that ground rather than khula. That matters, because in Sindh a khula decree generally requires the wife to restore the dower she received, under the proviso to section 10(4) of the Family Courts Act.

Threats to take the children. These are answered in the Family Court acting as Guardian Court under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890: an application for custody, for interim custody, and for meetings in a controlled setting. Courts do not restrict a parent's travel lightly. In C.P. No. S-310 of 2023 (decided 4 May 2023), the High Court of Sindh set aside an order placing a mother on the Exit Control List, holding that such an order must rest on sound reasons, such as misuse of a custody arrangement. A written threat to remove the children abroad is exactly the kind of evidence that supplies those reasons. Our guide to child custody in Pakistan explains the welfare test.

Proving recordings and messages. Article 164 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 allows evidence produced by modern devices. The Supreme Court in Ishtiaq Ahmed Mirza v. Federation of Pakistan made clear that a recording cannot be relied on until it is proved genuine and not tampered with. Keep originals on the device they arrived on and produce copies.

The Family Court's jurisdiction is tied to the matters listed in the Schedule to the Family Courts Act, so it is not the natural forum for a free-standing order against harassment. Where there is no domestic relationship for the 2013 Act, a civil suit for injunction is the usual alternative.

Evidence, what not to do, and a safety plan

Preserve first. Export the whole WhatsApp chat with media rather than relying on screenshots. Save voice notes as original files. Write a short dated log of each incident: what was said, by whom, and who else heard it. Keep a copy of everything, including your CNIC, Nikahnama and the children's B-forms, with one trusted person outside the house.

What not to do:

• Do not pay. Paying confirms the threat works, and later demands are common.
• Do not delete chats or clear your phone, even out of shame. Deleted messages are the evidence a prosecution needs.
• Do not sign anything under pressure: an affidavit withdrawing a case, a dower waiver, or a "compromise". If you were made to sign, tell your lawyer and the court promptly.
• Do not confront him with your evidence or go alone to "settle" matters at his family's house.
• Do not post accusations about him on social media. It can hand him a counter-complaint under section 20 PECA.

Safety planning. Change passwords and recovery numbers on your email and social media accounts, turn off location sharing, and check whether he set up your phone or has access to your cloud account. Tell the children's school in writing who may collect them, and give it a copy of any custody or protection order. Agree a code word with a relative that means "call the police". In an emergency, call the police helpline 15 first. A protection order or FIR can follow.

Common questions

This article is general information about Pakistani law and procedure, not legal advice for any specific matter. If this touches on something you're currently facing, get in touch and we'll advise on your facts directly.