The federal government has increased the value of blood money (diyat) by around 97 per cent to Rs19,352,390 for the fiscal year 2026-27, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance.
The revised amount, notified under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), 1860, replaces the previous fiscal year’s value of Rs9,828,670. The increase is primarily attributed to the rise in silver prices, as the law links the minimum value of diyat to the market value of silver.
Diyat is financial compensation payable by a person convicted of murder to the legal heirs of the victim. Under subsection (2) of Section 323 of the PPC, its minimum value is based on 30,630 grams of silver.
According to the finance ministry’s notification, the value of diyat for FY2026-27 has been fixed at Rs19,352,390, reflecting the value of 30,630 grams of silver.
Section 323 of the PPC provides that courts must determine the amount of diyat in accordance with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, while also considering the financial position of both the convicted person and the victim’s heirs. However, the amount cannot be less than the value of 30,630 grams of silver.
The same provision requires the federal government to notify the value of silver in the official Gazette on the first day of July each year, or on another date it considers appropriate. That notified value forms the basis for calculating the minimum diyat for the relevant fiscal year.
The latest increase follows a series of sharp annual revisions. The notified value of diyat was Rs6,757,902 in FY2023-24, representing a 56 percent increase from Rs4,318,524 in FY2022-23. It later rose to Rs9,828,670 for FY2025-26 before reaching the current level.
Separately, an amendment proposed in the Senate in July 2025 sought to replace the existing minimum of 30,630 grams of silver with either 2,000 grams of gold or one quarter of the assets held by the convicted person. The proposal has not been reflected in the current notification.
