LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed great disappointment and concern over the National Assembly Standing Committee on Religious Affairs rejecting a proposal to raise the minimum marriage age for girls to 18 years, the same as for the boys after several committee members declared such a change ‘un-Islamic’.
In a statement issued on Friday, the commission said, “HRCP joins the civil society and conscious citizens in mourning the sad fact that no more than a couple of lawmakers chose to stand up for the rights of the girl child on Thursday as the Standing Committee on Religious Affairs shot down proposed amendments to Child Marriage Act 1929 regarding minimum marriage age for girls.
“The attitude of the standing committee members who quietly surrendered to the diktat of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) that cannot be deplored strongly enough. Indeed, they bear more responsibility for protecting obscurantism than even the members of the CII.
The statement said, “It seems that Quaid-e-Azam’s struggle to have minimum age of marriage prescribed for Muslim girls through the 1929 law has no relevance to all those who claim to have inherited his ideology.
“The move also compromises Pakistan’s position on key human rights instruments which it is a party to and which uphold equal rights for men and women, children’s rights and rights in marriage. The decision by the standing committee should only stimulate the women of Pakistan and their justice loving supporters among men to keep the fight on and follow the example of Sindh which has through law prescribed that the minimum marriage age for both boys and girls would be 18,” the statement further said.
DAILY TIMES.
YEMI.
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