ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and former senator Farhatullah Babar on Monday expressed serious concern over statements by leaders of a parliamentary party, saying their open calls to violate the Child Marriage Act could encourage people to disregard the law and weaken respect for the country’s legal system.
While talking to Business Recorder Babar said, “The remarks publicly made by a senior leader of a religio-political party that he was ready to marry an underage girl to oppose the Child Marriage Act are a distressing throwback to medieval times, deeply worrying and problematic.”
He said that under the Constitution, Parliament is empowered to legislate and the prescription of a minimum age for marriage falls squarely within this domain. “The Council of Islamic Ideology may only make suggestions to the Parliament if asked but it cannot legislate,” he said.
He said, “The institution of marriage is not matter for scoring political points. Any public discourse on vulnerable populations’ demands responsibility, restraint, and a deep awareness of the consequences of letting words escape the lips thoughtlessly.”
He said that the rationale for prescribing a minimum age for marriage is grounded in considerations of health, education, and welfare of girls trapped in multiple layers of deprivation. He said that Child marriages have resulted in higher maternal health risks, interruption of education, economic dependency, and shrinking of opportunities for young girls.
He said that religious principles emphasize justice, protection of the vulnerable and responsible guardianship and the fixation of minimum marriage age indeed promotes, not negate, these principles.
Babar said that the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan has also held that prescribing a minimum age for marriage falls within the competence of Parliament and does not violate religious tenets.
He said, “legislatures across several Muslim-majority countries including Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, UAE, Algeria and Jordan have also fixed minimum age thresholds for marriage that reflect contemporary realities.”
“At a time when Pakistan faces grave social and ethnic divisions, political polarization and insurgency in a province, we need to focus on strengthening families through education, health, and empowerment — not through statements that risk deepening the divisions,” Babar said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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