LAHORE: Policy recommendations to eliminate child marriage were discussed on Friday at a consultation organised by Shirkat Gah with MPA Uzma Kardar as chief guest.

Earlier, Ms Kardar along with Raheela Khadim and Musarat Jamshaid Cheema, submitted the Child Marriage Restraint Bill in the Punjab Assembly, demanding making production of computerised national identity card (CNIC) compulsory at the time of marriage.

During the consultation, several recommendations were presented by the participants and they included allocation of adequate budget for effective implementation of laws, robust monitoring mechanisms, implementation of laws , training of nikah khwans/registrars for family laws; mechanisms for reporting, prevention of child marriage, CNIC and birth registration drives, implementation of the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 and initiation of information sharing and awareness campaigns.

In her address, Ms Kardar said Sindh had been successful in bringing about changes regarding a raise in the age of marriage. She said Pakistan should learn from many countries in the Middle East where the legal age for marriage is 18-21 years. She said forced conversion was also an issue and added that conversion was not a decision that could be made at such a young age.

“We should ensure these issues are taken up with punishments and there should be a federal benchmark for the minimum age. There have been incidents where people travel to the province where 18 is not the age limit and marry and then go back to their home province. There should be a greater punishment for this,” Ms Kardar added.

The problems related to early age marriage were also discussed.

The policy recommendations were by Shirkat Gah and National Commission for Status of Women (NCSW). Key participants included Shirkat Gah and NCSW.

The guests included Farida Shaheed, executive director Shirkat Gah, Khawar Mumtaz, chairperson NCSW, Shahid Farooq, Aisha Ghumman, director Directorate of Women Development, Dr Kiran Khurshid, Baela Raza Jamil and Noor Rehman.

A short film ‘The Clock is Ticking’ was also shown.

Meanwhile, the Aurat Foundation, in a statement, pointed out violation of girls’ rights. It said hardly one percent of Pakistanis knew about this international day despite the fact that more than half of the country’s population consisted of women and cases of gender-based violence (GBV) were a routine news story in media. “Sixty percent of Pakistani women are illiterate and more than 15m girls are out of school. The GBV including domestic violence, honour killing, early marriages and forced marriages, Vani and Swara, sexual abuse and so many other types of violence are alarmingly high in s ociety.”

The statement said successive governments have failed to protect the rights of the girl child. “Pakistan has remained unsuccessful to end child marriage due to pressure by the religious extremists,” it said.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2019