Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday expressed his disappointment at some “elected representatives and ministers’ opposition” to the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2018, in the National Assembly, terming it a “scary moment” for society.
“What hopes can one really attribute to a society whose fifty elected representatives and even ministers actually voted for underage marriage?” he tweeted.
The lawmakers who opposed the bill also included those from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), most prominent of whom were Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri and State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan.
Chaudhry, in his tweet, rued that elected representatives had voted in favour of child marriage, adding that the fact alone “should be enough to give sleepless nights to the world and intelligentsia of our own”.
He had also tweeted in favour of the bill, when journalist Hamid Mir pointed out that even though the bill was tabled by a lawmaker belonging to the PTI, it was opposed by some other ruling party members. “Unless we decide whether this country is to be governed by mullahs or rationality, we should forget even the idea of progress,” he stated.