Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday rejected the recently enacted Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025, announcing nationwide protest rallies aimed at “creating awareness” among the public.

The bill, which sought to protect the rights of children and eventually eradicate marriages of children under the age of 18 in Islamabad, was signed into law by the president on May 27 after sailing through both houses of parliament.

However, the move attracted strong opposition from religious segments of society, with the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) — a constitutional body responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic issues to the government and the Parliament — ruling that “classifying marriage under the age of 18 as rape did not conform with Islamic law.”

Addressing a press conference in Peshawar today, the JUI-F chief rejected the law, alleging that it “made fornication easier while making legitimate marriages difficult”.

“Pakistan is a strange country — during the time of General Musharraf, a constitutional amendment was passed in the name of women’s rights that decriminalised fornication,” Fazl said. “It took it out of the realm of sin.

“Now, they are trying to ban the marriage of people under 18. The CII has already rejected this and all ulemas and their parties have agreed that it contradicts the Quran and sunnah,” he added, lamenting that despite constitutional guarantees, the Constitution was “being trampled”.

Announcing that the JUI-F would “take steps” to protest the legislation, Fazl announced a series of rallies and a large conference in Hazara Division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on June 29.

“We will stage rallies, but they won’t focus on one subject, like Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the party chief explained. “Now, we will host rallies to create awareness about national sovereignty and Islamic governance.”

He added, “God willing, we will present our stance to the world freely. Islam is a faith that moves with the world and can be beneficial.”

Underage marriages are practised in some parts of the country, most commonly in rural areas, driven largely by poverty and limited access to education. According to a 2019 World Health Organisation report, about 21 per cent of girls in Pakistan were married before 18.

The same year, the Senate passed the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2018 — a private member bill presented by PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, proposing that the legal minimum age of marriage in the country be set at 18.

At that time, JUI-F had opposed the bill as well, calling it “contradictory to Islamic principles,” and suggesting that the bill should be sent to the CII before being discussed in the Senate. It was, however, not passed by the National Assembly.

Similarly, in 2021, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2021 presented by PPP MPA Nighat Orakzai — aimed at banning marriages of people under the age of 18 — could not become law.

In 2014, the Sindh government had promulgated the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013.