The federal government has nearly doubled the value of diyat — the Islamic blood money paid to the heirs of a murder victim — to Rs. 19.35 million for fiscal year 2026-27, driven by a sharp rally in global silver prices.

A notification issued by the Ministry of Finance pegged the new diyat amount at Rs. 19,352,390, a staggering 97 percent jump from the Rs. 9,828,670 set in the preceding fiscal year.

The revision is not discretionary. Under Section 323 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the minimum diyat is statutorily tied to the market value of 30,630 grams of silver, and the federal government is obligated to notify the amount annually based on prevailing prices. As silver has climbed, so has the cost of atonement.

This is the second consecutive sharp increase. In fiscal year 2023-24, the diyat amount was raised by 56 percent to Rs. 6.76 million from Rs. 4.32 million a year earlier. The latest figure now stands at more than four times that level.

Under Pakistani law, courts determine the final diyat payable by weighing the financial position of both the convicted offender and the victim’s heirs, in accordance with Islamic injunctions. However, the amount cannot fall below the government-notified floor.

The steep escalation has reignited debate over the silver benchmark. Last year, a proposal was tabled in the Senate seeking to amend the law by replacing the 30,630-gram silver standard with either 2,000 grams of gold or one-fourth of the convicted person’s assets. The bill has yet to be enacted, leaving the silver peg — and its volatility — intact for now.