My relative has taken over my property in Pakistan. What do I do from here?

Property · By Khalil Ahmad Bhullah, Founding Partner · 22 September 2026 · Pakistani law only

The call usually comes after a year of being polite. A cousin was living in the house to “keep it safe”. A brother was collecting the rent and sending some of it. Then the rent stopped, the calls got shorter, and the last message said the property was always meant to be his.

Owners abroad tend to lose those cases slowly, not because Pakistani law is against them, but because of what they do in the first few weeks. Here is what actually helps.

Do not negotiate on paper

The most damaging thing an overseas owner can do is sign something. A family settlement, a receipt, an acknowledgement that the occupier “paid for repairs” — any of these can be produced in court two years later as evidence that you accepted their claim. If a relative sends a document over WhatsApp and asks you to sign and send it back, the answer is that your lawyer will respond.

The second most damaging thing is sending a relative to argue on the ground. It creates a confrontation and no evidence. Photographs of the site, and a note of who is living there and since when, are worth more than any argument.

Find out what the record says now

Before anything is filed, we check what the official record shows today: the current fard for land, the registry or mutation chain, and the file in the housing society or development authority for a plot. That single step decides which case you have.

• If the record still shows your name, the problem is possession. That is the faster kind of case.
• If the record has already changed, the problem is title as well as possession — usually a forged power of attorney, an impersonated seller, or a mutation entered on someone’s word. That case is longer and needs an injunction on day one.

Which route fits

There is no single “qabza case” in Pakistani law. There are several routes and they suit different facts:

A complaint under the Illegal Dispossession Act, 2005 goes to the Sessions Court, is criminal in character, and the court can restore possession during the trial. It is not limited to organised land-grabbing gangs; it applies to anyone holding possession without lawful authority, including relatives.

A summary suit under section 9 of the Specific Relief Act, 1877 is available if you were dispossessed within the last six months, and it does not require you to prove title — only that you were in possession and were put out. It is quick and it lapses quickly, which is why delay costs so much.

A civil suit for possession, declaration and cancellation is the route when the record has been changed or the occupier claims a sale. It is slower, and it is the one that settles ownership for good. It usually runs alongside an application for an injunction so nothing further can be transferred while it is pending.

Since 2025, Punjab also has special courts for overseas Pakistanis’ property, with judges designated in the districts in November 2025. Whether your matter belongs there is a question we answer at the first review, not a promise we make in advance.

You do not have to fly home to start

Almost all of this can be run on a power of attorney signed where you live — through NADRA’s online system, at a Pakistani mission, or with a local apostille if the Apostille Convention operates between your country and Pakistan. Keep it narrow: one property, one purpose. The general powers of attorney handed to relatives years ago are the single most common cause of the cases we are describing.

What to send a lawyer first

Photographs of whatever title papers you hold, your CNIC or NICOP, the district, the names of the people in possession, and any message in which they explain their claim. That is enough for a first assessment. Everything else we can obtain in Pakistan.

More detail on the routes, the documents and the timelines is on our property disputes page for overseas Pakistanis.