Separated parents demand better meeting facilities at Rawalpindi Judicial Complex
Untidy cement and iron benches reflect inadequate facilities at the Rawalpindi Judicial Complex for separated parents and children. Photo: Express
RAWALPINDI:
By the end of 2025, a record and alarming increase in meetings between divorced parents and their separated children has been seen at the Family Facilitation Center in Rawalpindi Judicial Complex.
The increase, which continued throughout the year on a monthly basis, is primarily attributed to the rising divorce rate.
Previously, meetings with separated children were allowed once a week on a specific day with the permission of a family judge.
However, due to the sharp increase in the number of divorcing couples, such meetings are now held on a daily basis. According to the person in charge of the family facilitation center, between 45 and 65 divorced mothers, fathers, grandparents and close relatives visit the center daily to meet children.
On a weekly basis, 360 to 390 divorcing couples visit the facility, while the monthly figure varies between 9,000 and 10,500. From 1 January to 31 December 2025, a total of 22,185 divorced parents met their separated children at the centre.
These encounters often present emotional and heartbreaking scenes.
Children living with their mothers after divorce are visited by fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, while children living with fathers – where mothers have remarried – are visited by maternal relatives, including grandmothers, grandfathers and aunts.
Parents bring pizzas, burgers, juices, cakes, sweets, roast chicken and pulao for the children, as well as toys, clothes, shoes, bicycles and monetary gifts. Each meeting lasts between 30 and 40 minutes, and at one time 15 to 20 couples can meet their children at the facility.
Parents and elderly who visited the center expressed serious complaints about the condition of the facility. Visitors including Waris Ali, Masood Khan and Iftikharuddin said the waiting area is completely open to the sky with cement and iron benches which are impossible to sit on in severe cold.
They said the benches remain wet and dirty due to morning dew and are never cleaned. There is no drinking water facility and parents are forced to wait in the open. There is a small plastic shed, but rainwater comes in from all sides, leaving the visitors soaked.
They demanded construction of a proper roof, replacement of iron and cement benches with chairs, arrangements for protection from sun and rain and expansion of the center so that at least 50 parents could meet children at one time.
They also called for converting the one-story building into a three-story facility and introducing an online meeting system to ease difficulties.
The parents’ key demand was that instead of meeting in court facilitation centers, children should be handed over to the separated parent twice a month for a full day on strict guarantees and bail.
They suggested that CNICs and passports of visiting parents and relatives be deposited as security for a day. This, they said, would give children a more homely environment during the meetings.
