ISLAMABAD: Senator Chaudhry Tanvir Khan of the ruling PML-N on Monday tabled a bill in the upper house to make blood tests compulsory before marriage to curb inherited blood disorders and birth defects.

After tabling the “Premarital Blood Screening (Family Laws Amendment) Act 2016”, the senator said consanguineous marriages had become a great risk to society as children born out of these suffered from several congenital problems.

“Particularly, it happens in cases of marriages with first cousins. The child inherits two copies of the faulty gene and becomes victim of an inherited disease. Such diseases include blindness, cerebral palsy, mental disorders, thalassemia, physical deformities and hearing and speech impairments etc,” he said.

In Pakistan, 77pc of babies born with birth defects belong to parents who were in consanguineous marriages and such children have low rate of survival.

The bill intended to curb inherited blood disorders and birth defects by making a medical certificate and premarital blood screening tests mandatory before entering into the contract of marriage, he said.

According to the bill, the Nikah registrar shall register a marriage only upon the production of a medical certificate of premarital blood screening issued by the authorised medical officer recommending the marriage.

No marriage certificate shall be valid unless it is certified by the concerned family court. It is suggested that the bill will also be applicable for Christian marriages.

Minister for Law Zahid Hamid said there were some legal and religious issues so the bill should be referred to the standing committee for sorting them out. Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani referred the bill to the standing committee of the national health services for discussion.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016