DLP Report
PESHAWAR
Civil society groups have welcomed a resolution tabled in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly calling for raising the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18, and urged the provincial government to move swiftly to legislate the change.
The resolution was moved by Ms. Amna Sardar, Member Provincial Assembly and Joint Secretary of the Women Parliamentary Caucus.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Provincial Alliance to End Early, Child and Forced Marriages said the move had revived a long-stalled issue in the assembly after years of policy inaction.
The resolution cites Pakistan’s obligations under the Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and CEDAW, and stresses the need to end child, early and forced marriages.
According to the Alliance, the proposed legislation has already been vetted by the Law Department but has not been placed before the provincial cabinet due to weak political will. It noted that Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory have already raised the legal marriage age to 18, leaving KP behind despite repeated advocacy.
Qamar Naseem, Malala Fund Education Champion and representative of the Alliance, said Ms. Sardar had shown “courageous leadership” by raising the issue. “The government must urgently present the bill before the cabinet and provincial assembly for debate and passage,” he said.
Civil society groups also pointed to recent positions of the Council of Islamic Ideology, which they said had not opposed legislative measures to end child marriage and had described it as a harmful social practice. The Council, they added, had recommended making the Computerised National Identity Card mandatory at the time of marriage registration.
The Alliance further cited a ruling of the Federal Shariat Court that legislation regulating the minimum age of marriage is not contrary to Islamic principles. It also referred to the Cairo and Khartoum Declarations, supported by Islamic countries, which call for eliminating harmful practices including child marriage and female genital mutilation.
Zahoor Ahmad, a child rights activist leading the Child Rights Movement, termed the resolution a “long-overdue step” to protect girls’ education, health, dignity and future.
The Alliance called on the KP government to table the Child Marriage Restraint Bill in the cabinet and assembly without further delay.
