Your cousin calls you one night. She says she wants to marry her partner. They are both women. She has seen same sex weddings online, from countries where they are legal, and she wants the same thing here. She asks you one question. Can two people of the same sex marry in Pakistan?
Here is the plain answer. No. Pakistani law only recognises marriage between a man and a woman. No law in the country allows same sex marriage, and no court has ever recognised one. This guide shows you what the law actually says, so you know where things stand.
Is same sex marriage legal in Pakistan?
No. There is no provision for same sex marriage anywhere in Pakistani law. There is also no provision for civil unions or registered partnerships between two men or two women. The UK Home Office country report on Pakistan, November 2025 puts it in one line. Same sex couples have no legal recognition in Pakistan.
What the law says a marriage is
For Muslims, marriage in Pakistan is a nikah. It is a contract between a man and a woman. It needs an offer, an acceptance, two witnesses, and a dower. That is what makes it valid. No nikah between two people of the same sex can be performed or registered, because the law does not recognise it as a marriage.
Registration is compulsory. Section 5 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 says every marriage solemnized under Muslim law must be registered with the Nikah Registrar of the Union Council. A registrar who is asked to register a same sex union has no legal basis to do it.
For non Muslims, the position is the same. The Christian Marriage Act, the Hindu marriage laws, and the other personal laws of Pakistan are all written for a bride and a groom. None of them provides for two husbands or two wives.
What Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code says
This is the section people usually bring up. Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code punishes carnal intercourse against the order of nature with imprisonment for life, or for a term of not less than two years and not more than ten years, and a fine. The law does not use the words gay or homosexual. It was written in 1860, and it punishes the act, not the marriage.
The section does not talk about marriage at all. But it sits behind this question, because it criminalises same sex relations between men. So the position in Pakistan is this. There is no same sex marriage, and the act itself is an offence under the Penal Code.
What happens if a ceremony is held anyway?
A ceremony that the law does not recognise can create its own problem. Section 496 of the same Code punishes anyone who goes through a marriage ceremony knowing that the marriage is not lawful. The punishment is up to seven years in prison and a fine. The section was written for fraud, but it shows that holding a ceremony the law does not recognise is not a neutral act.
Is the law actually used?
Prosecutions under Section 377 are rare. The UK Home Office report says there are no known executions for same sex conduct, and the state has not applied Sharia punishments for it. But rare does not mean never.
There have been arrests. In 2010 police in Karachi detained 43 people at a party they suspected was a gay marriage ceremony, and charged two men under Section 377, as CNN reported at the time. In 2015 two men in Balochistan were arrested over an alleged secret marriage. In 2020 the Lahore High Court issued an arrest warrant for a trans man accused of entering a same sex marriage with a woman. The law rarely reaches a conviction, but it is used to threaten, to harass, and sometimes to extort.
What about transgender people?
Pakistan has a separate law for transgender people. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 recognises a person's self perceived gender identity, and bars discrimination against transgender people in jobs, schools, and healthcare. Some of its provisions were declared un Islamic by the Federal Shariat Court in 2023.
But that law does not change marriage. It deals with gender identity, not with who you can marry. Marriage in Pakistan remains a union of a man and a woman.
What this means for you
Here is the plain version. A same sex couple cannot register a nikah in Pakistan. They get none of the legal protections that come with marriage. No inheritance rights, no maintenance, no family court remedies, no divorce process to go through. The relationship itself is not recognised.
And the criminal law is real. Section 377 is on the books. It is rarely enforced, but it exists, and it can be used against you by police, by family, or by anyone who wants to pressure you. If this is your situation, know the law, keep your private life private, and talk to a lawyer you trust before you take any step that can be documented.
This is one of many questions Pakistanis ask about marriage. We have answered is cousin marriage banned in Pakistan, is court marriage legal in Islam, and love marriage in Islam the same way, with the law in front of us.
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