You cannot evict a tenant yourself
Your tenant has stopped paying rent. Or the tenancy period has ended and the tenant will not move out. You want the house back. What can you do?
The short answer: you cannot throw the tenant out yourself. Cutting electricity, changing locks, or removing belongings is not eviction. It is self help, and it can weaken your case. Eviction happens only through a Rent Tribunal or a Rent Controller.
The law that applies to you
Pakistan does not have one rent law. You follow the law of the province where the property sits.
- Punjab: the Punjab Rented Premises Act 2009, for the whole province. Official text on the Punjab Code website.
- Sindh: the Sindh Rented Premises Ordinance 1979, for urban areas.
- Islamabad: the Islamabad Rent Restriction Ordinance 2001. The High Court confirmed in 2024 it covers the whole capital territory.
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan: the Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance 1959.
The grounds for eviction
You can ask for eviction only on grounds the law lists. In Punjab, section 15 of the 2009 Act gives six:
- the tenancy period has expired;
- the tenant did not pay the rent within thirty days after it was due;
- the tenant broke a term or condition of the tenancy agreement;
- the tenant violated an obligation under section 13;
- the tenant used the premises for a different purpose;
- the tenant sublet the premises without your written consent.
Personal need is not in the Punjab list. If you want the house for your own use, let the agreed period run out and do not renew.
Sindh adds a ground Punjab does not have. Under section 15 of the 1979 Ordinance, a landlord may evict when he needs the premises in good faith for his own occupation or that of his spouse or children. The other grounds are rent default, subletting without consent, misuse, damage, nuisance, and reconstruction with official sanction.
How the process works in Punjab
The Act sets up a Rent Tribunal in each district, run by a Special Judge (Rent), with exclusive jurisdiction over rent cases.
Send a written notice first. Section 13 lets you name what the tenant did and the remedial action required within a stated time. A dated notice with proof of delivery is good evidence.
Then file an application in the Rent Tribunal of the area where the premises is. For eviction you submit your own affidavit and the affidavits of no more than two witnesses. One catch: if the tenancy does not follow the Act, the Tribunal will not entertain your application unless you deposit a fine equal to ten percent of the annual rent. The tenant pays five percent.
The tenant must then ask for leave to contest within ten days of appearing; the Tribunal decides it within fifteen days, and refusal means the final order follows. The Tribunal also directs the tenant to deposit the rent due and keep paying; failure brings the final order at once. If you refuse to accept rent, the tenant can deposit it with the Tribunal instead.
The Act says the Tribunal should decide within four months of filing; the order is executed like a civil court decree. Appeal goes in writing to the District Judge within thirty days, is decided within two months, and there is no further appeal.
How Sindh works
In Sindh you apply to the Rent Controller. The grounds are in section 15, and the procedure is faster than a normal civil suit.
For rent default the rule is specific: fifteen days after the agreed payment date, or sixty days after the rent became due when no date was agreed. There is a rescue clause: if on the first day of hearing the tenant admits the liability, has no previous default, and the default is not more than six months, the Controller rejects the application if the tenant pays in time.
Sindh also has a fast track for special landlords. A widow, a minor whose both parents are dead, a salaried employee retiring within six months, or a person reaching sixty within six months can give written notice and ask for possession, but not earlier than two months later. If the tenant does not vacate, the Controller orders eviction in a summary manner.
If a landlord evicts a tenant on personal need and then rents the premises to someone else within one year, the evicted tenant can apply to be restored and the landlord can be fined up to one year's rent. A frivolous eviction application can draw compensation of up to ten times the monthly rent. Appeals go to the District Judge within thirty days.
Islamabad, KP and Balochistan
Islamabad follows the Rent Restriction Ordinance 2001. The agreement must be in writing and presented to the Rent Controller within thirty days. Rent rises ten percent every year unless the agreement fixes something else. The grounds are close to Sindh's, including personal bona fide need. Since 2021, disputes first go to a Mediation Council, which tries for up to thirty days to settle them. A Federal Law Journal comparison of the rent laws is a good place to check the details.
KP and Balochistan still run on the Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance 1959. Its grounds: default, subletting, damage, personal need, and nuisance. Appeals: KP to the District Judge, Balochistan to the High Court.
What a tenant can do
Tenants have real protections, and you should know them before you file.
- If the landlord refuses rent, the tenant can deposit it with the Tribunal or Controller and that counts as payment.
- A landlord cannot cut off electricity, gas or water to force the tenant out. In Sindh that is an offence with up to six months imprisonment or a fine, and the Controller can order restoration. In Punjab the Tribunal can order restoration and let the tenant deduct the cost from the rent.
- A tenant who claims he owns the property still has to vacate first and fight the ownership case separately. The Supreme Court repeated this once a tenant always a tenant position in Nasir Khan v. Nadia Ali Butt (2024 SCMR 452).
Your own paperwork matters too. A written rent agreement in Pakistan that names the period, rent, due date and purpose makes eviction cases short and cheap. Keep rent receipts, and remember that tenant rights in Pakistan include protection against self help. If you are drafting one, check the stamp duty on rent agreements before you sign.
For the wider picture of what the law lets an owner do, from rent recovery to entry, see our guide to landlord rights in Pakistan.
How long does it take?
In Punjab the law says four months for the Tribunal and two months for the appeal. In reality cases often run longer. For other guides, see the Lexiber blog or the home page.
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