Sherry Rehman has presented an amendment to the Child Marriage Restriction Act of 1929 that sets the marriageable age of girls at 16 and of boys at 18. Rehman argued that the marriageable age of girls be raised to 18 years.
Child marriages have been occurring since the inception of Pakistan and in the past, the matter has not received much attention. Most child marriages tend to occur in rural areas especially in the lower socio-economic bracket. Statistics have shown that 21% of girls are married below the age of 18 years.
This is not the first time that such an amendment has been brought forward. In May 2017, the National Assembly rejected a proposal that would have increased the legal marriageable age to 18 years nationwide. A bill to the same effect was also rejected in 2014 by Pakistan’s National Assembly but was passed by the Sindh Assembly as the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act which prohibits marriage under the age of 18.
Read more from ProperGaanda: Facts About Child Marriage in Pakistan However in February 2017, the Parliament adopted an amendment to the Penal Code that would effectively toughen punishment against child marriage. Offenders would face a minimum of five years in prison and may serve up to 10 years. The perpetrators would also face a fine of up to 1 million rupees ($9,547). Swipe to read about the proposed amendment
Following the acceptance of the amendment, Sherry Rehman tweeted:
Happy to see the entire Human Rights Committee of Senate respond with a yes to my Ban on Child Marriage Bill. My thx to all members, Chair @Mustafa_PPP and minister @ShireenMazari1 for support. Now all laws wait for National Assembly to finally make their 6 months late Committees pic.twitter.com/Y7yi1oH8ng
— SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) January 30, 2019