Pakistan's Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has issued a landmark ruling establishing strict safeguards to protect women's inheritance rights, requiring courts and revenue authorities to apply heightened judicial scrutiny to any transaction that curtails or extinguishes a female heir's entitlements. The ruling, authored by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, came after the court overturned a Balochistan High Court decision that had upheld a compromise agreement effectively disinheriting two sisters of their Sharia-mandated shares in their late parents' estate. The judgment places the burden of proof squarely on those who benefit from such transactions to demonstrate that a woman's consent was free, informed and free from coercion, fraud or social pressure — a ruling that advocates say could significantly curb the widespread practice of pressuring women across Pakistan to sign away their legally protected inheritance.