Stakeholders urge govt to enact Child Marriage Restraint Bill

PESHAWAR: A provincial stakeholders seminar on child marriages has called on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to enact the Child Marriage Restraint Bill to address the deep-rooted social and traditional practice that adversely impacts millions of young lives.

Participants stressed that such legislation was essential to safeguard the potential and future of children, said a press release. The seminar was jointly organized by Blue Veins, the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), and the Directorate General of Human Rights.

The event featured speakers, including Allama Muhammad Raghib Hussain Naeemi, Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII); Maulana Tayyab Qureshi, Chief Khateeb of Peshawar district; Ghulam Ali, Director of the Directorate General of Human Rights; Said Rehman, Director of Local Government KP; Imran Takkar, child rights activist; and Muhammad Rizwan, Coordinator of NCHR, among others.

Speakers urged the provincial government to make 18 years the mandatory minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls. Participants expressed concern over delays in enacting legislation and emphasized that existing laws, such as the Pakistan Majority Act 1975 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010, define individuals under 18 as children. Therefore, any marriage below this age should be considered illegal.

Qamar Naseem, Programme Manager of Blue Veins, said according to data collected by international organizations around 21 percent of girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa became married before attaining the age of 18 years while three percent of girls in the province are married at the age of 15 years, Qamar added.

Quoting figures from the Health and Demographic Survey Report of KP, he said 15 percent of girls become mothers before the age of 18. Similarly, he continued, 23 percent of girls in the province could not study till 10th grade because of getting married.

He said the colonial era Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA) 1929 was still in vogue in the province which defined a child as a person, if a male, is under 18 years of age, and if a female, is under 16 years of age.

He said the CMRA 1929 provides punishment of simple imprisonment up to one month or a fine of Rs. 1000 or both, for contracting a child marriage by a male above 18 years of age; for performing or conducting a child marriage; and for parent or guardian involved in child marriage.

He said a new law titled KP Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2021, proposing the marriage age for both males and females as 18, was submitted to KP Assembly as a private member bill but was not made an act yet.

The Law Department after vetting the draft legislation has announced returning it back to the Social Welfare Department with some recommendations. Director Local Government KP, Said Rehman apprised participants that around 800 Nikkah registrars had been registered in the province.

While supporting the viewpoints of seminar participants, Chairman CII, Allama Muhammad Raghib Hussain Naeemi suggested making registration of identity cards in Nikkah forms mandatory to ascertain the age of the bride and groom.

Allama Naeemi was also of the view that a uniform Child marriage law should be enforced in the country to reflect the consensus of the nation on this important issue. The seminar participants were informed that around 27 universities out of 34 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had shown compliance with the two percent admission quota for the minority community.

Sana Ahmad of Blue Veins said that in 2021-22 only eight to nine universities, both public and private, in the province were complying with the decision to allocate of two percent quota for minority communities.However, due to joint efforts by Blue Veins, NCHR and minority representatives, the number of universities had reached 27 which were showing compliance.