Daily Times

Sir: Apropos a news item published in Daily Times on February 13, 2015, ‘Draft legislation to prevent child marriages’, the report accurately highlighted one of the flaws in the legal age for marriage in the existing Child Marriages Restraint Act 1929. I want to point out other limitations of the Act. It is not only the age of marriage that should be addressed and amended, there are some other factors as well that need to be highlighted for bringing real change to stop the tradition of child marriages in Pakistan. Other than the legal age of marriage, the extremely weak point of the Act is section 9 that neither allows the police to arrest the offenders nor investigate the case. For instance, the offender will only pay a fine of Rs 1,000 or undergo one month imprisonment for violating the Act. Even then, in any case, the marriage does not stand dissolved. In Pakistan, particularly in Punjab, every four out of 10 girls get married before reaching eighteen years of age, while the situation is even worse in Sindh. This sad state of affairs can only be dealt with by effective implementation of the prevailing law. On the one hand, the laws need to be strengthened by minimising the loopholes and simultaneously, grassroots action is required to bring about an attitude change among the communities. The legislators need to bring amendments to the law, making punishments stricter. The minimum age of marriage for boys and girls should be at least 18 years, the police should be given powers to take action against offenders, and the monitoring as well as the implementation of the law should be mandatory.

BILQUEES BANO
Islamabad