Female parliamentarians of four provinces and AJK on Friday agreed to amend Child Marriage Act to increase the age of girl for marriage from 16 to 18 years and made mandatory Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) for both girl and boy. The existing law is totally ineffective and could not be implemented anywhere in the country. These views were expressed by female parliamentarians and representatives of civil society in National Level Meeting on Child Marriage (Preventive Initiatives).
The speakers said that Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and CEDAW and both conventions ask the state to do appropriate legislation to end all kind of such discriminations, violence and abuse against women and girls. However, the recent step of provincial government is not very encouraging, as the discrimination between boys and girls in the shape of age still exists in the province. The amended act of 2015 does not fully realise the rights of the girl child in Pakistan.
Shaheen Kosar Dar, deputy speaker AJK Assembly, expressed that by bringing together media, civil society, religious scholars and policymakers to discuss these issues face-to-face will highlight the need of reforms. Dr Najma Afzal MPA said that the religion does not allow any kind of violence and abuse on the basis of gender and the religious scholars should raise voice for the elimination of such harmful practices in the country.
Religious misconceptions and wrong interpretations were creating serious problems for the growth and development of young people in a better way. All religious parties and sects must develop consensus to provide an enabling environment to young people to exercise their rights in a secure and healthy manner.
Dr Aliya Aftab, an MPA from Punjab, said that Chief Minister Punjab was very much focused on the betterment and development of youth and women of Punjab. She also shared the efforts of Punjab government for making legislative reforms in the provincial assembly. Concept of free and mandatory education was also being introduced in the province to ensure the girl's education and delaying the age of marriage. A mutual declaration was developed in consultation with all parliamentarians to register a demand that the new amended law does not fulfil the requirements and needs to be revisited.
Rahnuma-FPAP has conducted a day long "National Level meeting" of parliamentarians, media persons, human rights activists and government officials on Child Marriage. The event was organised under Pakistan Child Marriage (Prevention) Initiative being implemented with the financial and technical support of Plan (International) Pakistan and Post Code Lottery. A large number of provincial parliamentarians from all major political parties and participants from different walks of life including officials from concerned government departments, media and representatives from civil society etc were present in the event.
Naeem Tufail from Plan (International) Pakistan shared the successful experiences of Asian Child Marriage Initiative (ACMI) that is being implemented in three other countries of Asia including India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Umar Hammad, Manager FPAP, said that according to Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey almost half of the girls of 15 to 18 years of age were already pregnant or had a baby to take care of. UNICEF Innocent Research Centre has mentioned that 37 percent of Pakistani women are married before reaching the age of 18 years. Child marriage affects the child in the worst possible way. Victim girls face ill-health, the danger of losing their own lives or their children's as well as derision and abuse - mental and physical.
Nabila Zar Malick, Director Advocacy-FPAP gave a briefing on the recent provincial legislations on Child Marriage in Punjab and Sindh. She presented a critical review of both bills and also shared the bill developed by Social Welfare Department in close consultation with civil society. She shared that the passed bill of Punjab is not strong enough to restrain the practice of Child Marriage which unfortunately is wide spread in the province. Safdar Raza from Plan international gave briefing on the initiatives conducted by like-minded civil society organisations in stopping the incidence of child marriage in Pakistan through various interventions in the country.
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