Mediation in Family Disputes: An Appraisal of the Role of Arbitration Councils

Arbitration is a form of alternate dispute resolution (ADR) in which the matters are settled outside the court. In Family matters,arbitration plays a vital role in overcoming the differences between spouses. In the Family Laws of Pakistan, a body is designed for thearbitration of disputing couples which is termed as arbitration council. Although it is stated in section 7 (4) of Muslim Family Law Ordinance and section 10 of Family Court Act that the chairman of the council will constitute an arbitration council and an attempt for the reconciliation will be conducted but the criteria for the representatives of the council and implementation of their decisions are not determined. In this work, doctrinal and non-doctrinal mood of research is conducted to evaluate the satisfaction of female litigants dealing with the process of arbitration council. The paper is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the authority and process of arbitration council in Islamic law. The second part describes the process of arbitration council in Pakistani law. The third part elaborates the empirical data collected from the female litigants in the Pakistani courts. The forth part of the paper provides the results of arbitration process from the courts ant its adequacy, The paper suggests that in Pakistan the process of arbitration in divorce cases is not satisfactory. Therefore, in divorce cases, suited criteria for appointment of arbitrators and arbitration process should be determined. Keywords: Arbitration Council, Arbitrators,, Muslim Family Law,Pakistani Law, Reconciliation.