Call to amend Child Marriage Act

LAHORE : Many meetings were held for amendments to Article 11 (3), Article 25 (A) of the Constitution and for changes in Sections 2, 4, 5 and 6 in the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2016 with the PTI parliamentarians.

A lobby delegation including Faiqa Tariq, Babar Awan, Obaid Bazikh, Professor Zafarul Islam led by Prof Anjum James Paul met with Senator Seemi Ezdi. They had a detailed meeting regarding amendments to article 11 (3) of the Constitution to increase minimum age for marriage up to 18 years. The other amendment discussed at length was to article 25 (A) and 5-16 years.

According to Professor Zafarul Islam, “Amendment is needed. Amendment in section 2 (a) will end gender inequality and increase the girl’s age to eighteen years which is presently sixteen to get married in the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2016. If we don’t want to repeat incidents of child marriages like that of Arzoo and Sadaf, the government will have to amend the section. In 2015, Punjab amended the Child Marriage Restraint Ordinance 1971, and passed the Punjab Marriage Restraint Act 2015. It increased the imprisonment and fines but kept the legal age of marriage at 16 years.”

Existing legislature on child marriage is rife with lacunae and contradictions. Amendments in section 4, section 5 and section 6 will increase fines and punishments in the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2016, he said.