Pakistan

• The Constitution of 1973, the highest law
• Statutes, many inherited from British India, such as the Contract Act of 1872 and the Penal Code of 1860
• Islamic law, applied in family law and tested by the Federal Shariat Court
• Case law (precedent) from the Supreme Court and the High Courts

• The Supreme Court at the top
• The High Courts of each province, and the Federal Shariat Court
• District and sessions courts below them

A law degree (LLB), then enrolment with a provincial Bar Council. Higher rights of audience come with years of practice.

• The Federal Shariat Court is unusual: it can review laws against Islamic injunctions.
• Much of the basic law, like contract and criminal law, is still the colonial-era statutes.
• Family matters follow the personal law of the person's religion.
• Pakistan, India and Bangladesh share the same legal roots, so case law can be compared across them.

India, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Pakistan as: Muslim, Common law. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Gambia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman.

• Supreme Court of Pakistan

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.