How to cancel a power of attorney in Pakistan, and when it ends by itself

Yes, you can cancel it, and you do not need his consent

A power of attorney (mukhtar nama) makes the attorney your agent. The Contract Act, 1872 lets the owner, called the principal, take that authority back. The Supreme Court has described the relationship this way: "The relation that an agent and a principal share, is a fiduciary one." (2022 SCMR 1262, para 2)

There is one limit on timing. You cannot undo acts the attorney has already done under the power before you revoked it (section 204). That is why speed matters.

“The principal may, save as is otherwise provided by the last preceding section, revoke the authority given to his agent at any time before the authority has been exercised so as to bind the principal.”

Contract Act, 1872 · Section 203, When principal may revoke agent's authority

How long does a power of attorney last?

The Contract Act gives no fixed expiry date. A power lasts until the document's own terms end it, or until one of the events in section 201 happens: you revoke it, the attorney gives it up, the work is done, either of you dies or becomes of unsound mind, or you are declared insolvent.

The exception is a power coupled with interest, where the attorney has his own stake in the property, for example he may sell your land to recover a debt you owe him (section 202). Calling it irrevocable is not enough. In PLD 2014 SC 794 the Supreme Court held that a mere mention of a sale agreement in a general power did not turn it into one coupled with interest (para 12).

“An agency is terminated by the principal revoking his authority; or by the agent renouncing the business of the agency; or by the business of the agency being completed; or by either the principal or agent dying or becoming of unsound mind; or by the principal being adjudicated an insolvent under the provisions of any Act for the time being in force for the relief of insolvent debtors.”

Contract Act, 1872 · Section 201, Termination of agency

“Where the agent has himself an interest in the property which forms the subject-matter of the agency, the agency cannot, in the absence of an express contract, be terminated to the prejudice of such interest.”

Contract Act, 1872 · Section 202, Termination of agency where agent has an interest in subject-matter

Steps to cancel a power of attorney

• Step 1: Write a revocation deedName the power you are cancelling, its date, and its registration details if any. In 2022 SCMR 1068 the owner had revoked through a revocation deed, and the Court treated the attorney's later transfer as without authority (para 6).
• Step 2: Register it where the power was registeredFAI's statute index has no section that deals expressly with registering a revocation. If your power was registered, take the revocation deed to the same Sub-Registrar and check the current fee and procedure there.
• Step 3: Deliver it to the attorney and keep proofThe revocation does not bind him until it "becomes known to him" (section 208). Use a method you can prove later.
• Step 4: Tell the people he might deal withSection 208 says the same for third persons: it binds them only once it becomes known to them. Inform anyone who may act on the old power, such as a buyer, a bank or the office where your property is recorded.
• Step 5: If he has already transferred the property, act fastA transfer after revocation was cancelled by the revenue authorities and the courts upheld that (2022 SCMR 1068, paras 3 and 6). See a lawyer about a suit or a revenue challenge.

“The termination of the authority of an agent does not, so far as regards the agent, take effect before it becomes known to him, or, so far as regards third persons, before it becomes known to them.”

Contract Act, 1872 · Section 208, When termination of agent's authority takes effect as to agent, and as to third persons

Can an attorney sell property after the owner's death?

No. Death ends the agency under section 201, and the property passes to the owner's heirs. In PLD 2014 SC 794 the attorney had appointed a sub-attorney after the owner died, and the sub-attorney transferred the property to his own mother. The Supreme Court held that "in accordance with section 201 of the Contract Act the power of attorney will stand terminated on the death of the principal" (PLD 2014 SC 794, para 12), and that the sub-power was "invalid and of no legal effect" (PLD 2014 SC 794, para 12).

The only exception is a power coupled with interest under section 202, which the attorney has to prove.

Sales by the attorney after you revoke, or to his own family

In 2022 SCMR 1068 an elderly owner revoked her attorney's power in September 1974, and in October he transferred her land to his sons. The Supreme Court held that he "no more remained attorney of the lady, and stood denuded of whatever power he purportedly enjoyed thereunder. The transfer of the suit land by Ghulam Rasool was without authority and was of no legal effect." (2022 SCMR 1068, para 6)

Even a transfer made just before the revocation can fall. In 2022 SCMR 1262 an attorney gifted an overseas owner's property to his own son one day before the owner revoked the power; the transfer was set aside because he never told the owner or got his consent (para 4). Our reel on an attorney who transferred property to his own sons (2026 SCMR 1119) and our carousel for overseas Pakistanis on getting a power of attorney right cover these points.

In Punjab: powers of attorney for sale must be registered

In Punjab, since the Registration (Amendment) Act 2018, a power of attorney concerning the sale of immovable property worth one hundred rupees or more is compulsorily registrable. We could not confirm the position in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan from FAI's statute index.

“(bb) an instrument which grants power to an attorney or which constitute an agreement to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, by way of sale, any right, title or interest of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards, to or in immovable property;”

The Punjab Registration Act, 1908 · Section 17, Documents of which registration is compulsory

What this does not mean

• Revocation works forward. Acts the attorney completed before you revoked it can stand (s.204), unless you can repudiate them on other grounds such as s.215.
• A power coupled with interest is different: the attorney's stake cannot be cut off by revocation or death (s.202).
• We could not find a statute in FAI's index on registering a revocation; ask the Sub-Registrar.

Questions people ask

Sources

• Contract Act, 1872 · Section 201
  Termination of agency Pakistan Code
• Contract Act, 1872 · Section 202
  Termination of agency where agent has an interest in subject-matter Pakistan Code
• Contract Act, 1872 · Section 203
  When principal may revoke agent's authority Pakistan Code
• Contract Act, 1872 · Section 208
  When termination of agent's authority takes effect as to agent, and as to third persons Pakistan Code
• The Punjab Registration Act, 1908 · Section 17
  Documents of which registration is compulsory
• Mst. Hajyani Bar Bibi v. Mrs. Rehana Afzal Ali Khan, PLD 2014 SC 794 (Supreme Court of Pakistan, 18 September 2014)
  A power of attorney not coupled with interest ends on the principal's death; a sub-power and sale made afterwards are of no legal effect.
• Haq Nawaz v. Banaras, 2022 SCMR 1068 (Supreme Court of Pakistan, 15 September 2021)
  A transfer by an attorney after the power was revoked was without authority and of no legal effect.
• Syed Atif Raza Shah v. Syed Fida Hussain Shah, 2022 SCMR 1262 (Supreme Court of Pakistan, 2 March 2022)
  An attorney's transfer to his own son without the principal's consent, made a day before revocation, was rightly repudiated under s.215.

Every quote and section above is traced to the full judgment or statute text by an automatic check that runs on every update.