Under the law of partition of immovable property in Pakistan, partition of jointly owned property takes place through a suit for partition filed by any of the co-sharers (co-owners) of property in a civil court. The suit can be filed only by a person who is a co-sharer and not any one who is not. It is immaterial however, whether the person filing the suit is in possession or not.
After partition suit is filed, the court first passes a preliminary decree which determines who are the co-sharers of the property and how much share of property each sharer is entitled to.
After passing of preliminary decree, the court advances towards the final decree.
It appoints a referee to partition the property. The referee after visiting the property reports to the court whether the property is partible or not. If according to referee’s report the property is partible, then the referee submits proposed partition of the property in the court.
If according to referee’s report, the property is not partible, the court then fixes a reserve price of the property to conduct an internal auction between all the co-sharers of the property, in response to which co-sharers give their written price offers in court. The highest bidder in this internal auction is then ordered by the court to deposit the full price in court after deducting his share. The sale consideration is then distributed among all the co-sharers as per their share in the property.
If in internal auction, parties do not agree on reserve price or do not proceed to give their price offer, then court orders open (public) auction.
If before final decree is passed, all the parties (co-sharers) enter into a private settlement regarding division of property or purchase of property by one or more of the sharers etc., and distribution of sale consideration among the rest, the court will then proceed to pronounce final decree (judgment) based on that settlement.
