PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday urged the government to make a law without delay on preventing early age marriages of girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and suggested the law should be drafted in consultation with the relevant stakeholders.

Held to mark the Global Day of Action, the seminar was organised by Rahnuma Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP), KP chapter.

The speakers pointed out that the legal complexities had impeded the law on child marriage in the province, and called for removal of all lacunas in way of the important legislation. They said mortality rate among young mothers and newborn babies was quite high due to growing tendency of early marriages of girls.

Representatives of various government departments and civil society organisations shared their views on the early marriage prevention bill.

The speakers underscored the need for active role of government and other relevant stakeholders to remove obstacles in attainment of Millennium Development Goals relating to maternal and reproductive health and family planning under the universal commitments.

They stressed the need for better coordination and collective efforts by government departments, civil society, religious scholars and other key players to meet the goals.

Gohar Zaman, Rahnuma-FPAP’s regional director, briefed the participants about the global action plan and country commitments towards the achievement of universal access to better reproductive health and family planning targets.

An official of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Commission informed the participants that the provincial government was in the process of making legislation on prevention of early girls marriages, taking all relevant stakeholders on board. He expressed the hope that the proposed draft bill would soon be finalised for formal promulgation from the provincial assembly.

Allama Maqsood Ahmad Salafi, a religious scholar, briefed the participants about early age marriages and its repercussions keeping in view the Islamic perspective and cultural and social norms.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2016