LAHORE: A treasury member claimed in the Punjab Assembly on Friday that around 13.5 million women in the country can’t marry for lack of dowry.

Terming dowry a social menace, Ahsan Raza Khan said around 13.5m women in the country could not marry because their parents were unable to arrange dowry for them. He would not quote the source of this data.

Citing the example of India, where giving and accepting dowry has been declared unlawful, he argued enacting a similar law in the country prohibiting dowry and its exhibition. He recalled that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had, as Punjab chief minister, banned serving more than one dish at weddings and the law benefited many poor girls and their families.

He argued that in the presence of the inheritance law ensuring the women’s right to inherited property, there was no need for dowry. He said 80 percent of people in society were workers earning Rs32,000 per month or less and could not afford to give heavy dowry to their daughters.

Social welfare minister Sohail Shaukat Butt termed dowry a social curse, saying revolutionary steps are needed for its eradication.

Pledging to introduce a law to eliminate dowry, he regretted that the parents are being blackmailed on the issue.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2024