Minister appeases hardliners on child marriage bill

Published March 26, 2014
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf. — Photo by INP
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf. — Photo by INP

ISLAMABAD: The religious affairs minister on Tuesday seemed appeasing mullahs who failed to stop the introduction of a private bill in the National Assembly that seeks to make child marriage a cognizable offence with higher punishment for violations.

The bill, brought by five lawmakers of the ruling PML-N, invited a retrogressive tirade from Maulana Mohammad Khan Shirani, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) and a member of the government-allied Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), who, along with another party colleague, called the move contrary to Islam and the Constitution, pressing a stance that recently outraged liberal circles and rights groups.

The Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Sardar Mohammad Yousaf, did little to conceal his apparent tilt towards Maulana Shirani’s ideas, saying the house standing committee asked to vet the bill should take CII opinion on the issue or send the draft to the council if deemed necessary — a course that could put the fate of the bill in great doubt.

Also, there seemed little coordination on Tuesday among opponents of child marriage despite a recent denunciation of Maulana Shirani’s views by a parliamentary women’s caucus as only the lead author of the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, Marvi Memon, stood up to advocate its cause to prevent marriages below the adulthood age of 18 for reasons of health hazards to girls and social problems.

While opposition parties like the PPP and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) refrained from making a common cause with members of the ruling party, none of even Ms Menon’s own party colleagues challenged Maulana Shirani’s claims that the bill violated several articles of the Constitution forbidding legislation contrary to Quran and Sunnah.

“Such laws relating to religious issue should not be brought directly … without reference to the Council of Islamic Ideology,” said Maulana Shirani, who was later vehemently endorsed by his party colleague Maulana Ameer Zaman.

“Nobody differs with what the Maulana said (about CII opinion),” Mr Yousaf said, adding: “The committee will consider those recommendations.”

The bill seeks to amend the British-era Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, to empower family courts established under the Pakistan Family Court Act, 1964, to take cognizance of an offence and to provide for a punishment with up to two years’ rigorous imprisonment, or with a fine of up to Rs100,000 (instead of the presently provided one month’s simple imprisonment of and a fine of Rs1,000) , or with both. A defiance of a court injunction will also be punishable with up to one year’s imprisonment of either description or a fine of Rs100,000, or with both.

Four other private bills were also introduced and referred to the standing committees concerned on the first private members’ day of the present session, which began on Monday, including one from Asiya Nasir of JUI-F and five other lawmakers from non-Muslim minority communities, seeking to amend the Constitution to increase minorities’ seat in the National Assembly to 16 from 10 and raise the strength of the house to 348 from 342.

Another bill introduced by Marvi Memon seeks to prohibit corporal punishment against children. A bill by PML-N’s Tahira Aurangzeb seeks to facilitate provision of jobs to disabled persons in both public and private sectors and another by JUI-F’s Maulana Ameer Zaman seeks to amend the Constitution to provide for the establishment of a high court bench in Loralai town of Balochistan.

Later, the house, before adjourning until 10.30am on Wednesday, unanimously passed a resolution moved by PTI’s Asad Omar demanding that the government “take measures to reduce indirect taxation in the country”, after an animated debate marked by complaints about evasion of taxes by the rich and the brunt of indirect taxation borne by the poor and middle classes.

Rana Mohammad Afzal, parliamentary secretary for finance, informed the house that the government was already working on broadening the tax base and said that those refusing to divulge their incomes, from about 77,000 people to whom notices had been issued, could face cancellation of their computerised national identity cards.

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