Bill Criminalizing Child Marriage in Pakistan Rejected as ‘Un-Islamic’

By admin On May 28, 2025

The Council of Islamic Ideology on May 27, 2025 termed Pakistan’s anti-child marriage bill ‘un-Islamic.’ (CII Facebook)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Pakistan’s top Islamic body on Tuesday (May 27) rejected a bill that seeks to criminalize child marriages in Islamabad, describing it as “un-Islamic.”

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) also declared a similar bill presented by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provincial government to be in conflict with sharia (Islamic law). The announcements were made in a statement issued after a meeting of the CII chaired by Dr. Raghib Hussain Naeemi in Islamabad, the federal capital, on Tuesday (May 27).

The CII discussed the anti-child marriage bill passed by the National Assembly on May 16 and by the Senate on May 19. The bill defines a child as anyone under 18 years of age of either sex, and also states that no Nikah (Islamic marriage) registrar (officiant) is allowed to solemnize a marriage if either of the individuals is under 18.

Registrars are also required to check and confirm the age of both parties using their Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC), issued by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

As per the legislation, if a registrar violates this law, they can face up to one year in jail and a fine of 100,000 Pakistani Rupees ($354 USD). The bill says that any man over 18 who marries an underage girl could face up to three years of rigorous imprisonment.

“Living with a child under 18 in a marital relationship will be considered statutory rape,” the bill states.

The CII asserted that the bill’s clauses defining marriage under the age of 18 as sexual assault and prescribing punishments do not align with Islamic injunctions. It added that the National Assembly’s standing committee had not referred the bill to the CII for review before approving it for vote.

The CII also found the Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2025 submitted by the KP provincial government to contradicted sharia.

It emphasized that testing for thalassemia blood disorder before marriage should be optional, not mandatory, adding that according to Islamic teachings, marriage should be kept free from unnecessary complications.

Christian Daily International-Morning Star News reached out to CII Chairman Naeemi for comment, but he remained unavailable.

The bill passed by both houses of Parliament is yet to be signed by President Asif Zardari. Once signed into law, it would apply only to Islamabad, and only district and sessions courts would handle related cases. The Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 would no longer apply in the federal capital following enforcement of the law, but all past orders, decisions and judgments made under that act would still be considered valid.

Christian socio-political leaders have lauded the passage of the bill by parliament, terming it a revolutionary step for the protection of children, especially girls, in terms of health, education and life.

“The legislation is also critical to protect minor Christian girls from the scourge of forced faith conversions as the perpetrators misuse religion to abduct and marry underage girls,” a Christian lawmaker in the Punjab Assembly, Ejaz Alam Augustine, previously told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

The legislation stresses that anyone who forces a child into marriage could be jailed for up to seven years and fined up to 1 million Pakistani Rupees ($3,540 USD).

“The same punishment applies to anyone involved in trafficking a child for the purpose of marriage,” it specifies.

The bill also criminalizes abettors and accomplices, stating: “Those who assist in arranging a child marriage may be sentenced to up to three years in prison and fined.”

It further states that parents or guardians who fail to stop or are involved in a child’s marriage can also face up to three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine.

According to the legislation, courts will have the authority to stop a child marriage if informed in time, while the law also ensures protection for whistleblowers who wish to remain anonymous.

The new law also would deny bail to the perpetrators of the crime of underage marriage and bind courts of law to complete the trial within 90 days.

Augustine has called for a similar bill submitted in the Punjab Assembly for over a year to be presented for vote. Pending in the Punjab Assembly since April 25, 2024, the bill seeks to increase the legal age for marriage for both sexes to 18 years in Punjab.

Pending approval of the bill, the minimum age for girls to marry is still 16 in Punjab Province. Nationally, the Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act 2024 set the marriageable age at 18 only for Christians; if they convert to Islam, girls considered Muslims come under sharia, which allows them to marry younger.

Typically, kidnapped girls in Pakistan, some as young as 10, are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and raped under cover of Islamic “marriages” and are then pressured to record false statements in favor of the kidnappers, rights advocates say. Judges routinely ignore documentary evidence related to the children’s ages, handing them back to kidnappers as their “legal wives.”

Pakistan, whose population is 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.

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