The federal government has nearly doubled the value of blood money, or diyat, to more than Rs. 19 million for fiscal year 2026 and 2027, following a sharp rise in silver prices.
According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, the value of diyat has been set at Rs. 19,352,390, marking a 97 percent increase from Rs. 9,828,670 in the previous fiscal year. Under Pakistan’s legal framework, diyat is the financial compensation paid by a convicted offender to the legal heirs of a murder victim.
The increase is linked to the rising value of silver, as Section 323 of the Pakistan Penal Code requires the minimum diyat amount to be equivalent to the value of 30,630 grams of silver. The federal government is required to notify the value annually based on prevailing silver prices.
The latest increase follows another significant revision in fiscal year 2023 and 2024, when the diyat amount was raised 56 percent to Rs. 6,757,902 from Rs. 4,318,524 a year earlier.
Under the Pakistan Penal Code, courts determine the amount of diyat in accordance with the injunctions of Islam, while taking into account the financial position of both the convicted person and the victim’s heirs. However, the amount cannot be lower than the government notified value based on silver prices.
Last year, a proposal was introduced in the Senate seeking to amend the law by replacing the current benchmark of 30,630 grams of silver with 2,000 grams of gold or one fourth of the convicted person’s assets. The proposal has not yet been enacted.
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