LAHORE: Speakers at a discussion on child marriages have said the recently-amended Child Marriage Restraint Act has not addressed the civil society’s demand of setting 18 years as minimum marriageable age.

A consultative meeting for ending child marriages: A dialogue with parliamentarians was organised by the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi in collaboration with the Democratic Commission for Human Development (DCHD) attended by MPAs and civil society organisations’ representatives. The participants discussed the situation of child marriages in Punjab and prevailing laws.

ITA’s End Child Marriages Ambassador Samar Minallah stressed the need for effective legislation to curb child marriages and added that the legislation led to a positive change in mindset. Customary practices were major reason for the heinous practice of child marriage, she regretted.

Dr Fauzia Waqar said the local governments had a key role to impede child marriages and the government should also collaborate with the civil society to counter the practice of child marriages. She said the National Commission on Status of Women was working to curb the practice and a helpline was also functional and being extensively advertised.

Campaign Against Child Marriage coordinator Arshad Mehmood said the law-enforcement agencies and Nikah Khawan (nikah registrars) were unaware of the law and demanded that the minimum age for marriage should be raised to 18 years.

MPA Nabeela Hakim Ali said the state was bound to provide free education till the age of 16 years, which should ensure that there should be no child marriage. “The child marriages will be a clear negation of Article 25-A of the Constitution,” she said.

MPA Rukhsana Kaukab said child marriage was practiced due to poverty and illiteracy so in order to overcome the intensity of problem it was necessary to educate and empower people.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2015

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