Faisalabad: May 26, 2019. (PCP) Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) is highly concerned with growing numbers of abductions, forced conversions and forced marriages of minority girls while the recent Child marriage prohibition bill for the law seeking to set minimum age for marriage at 18 named ‘The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2019’ was passed in Senate but its further proceeding was stopped after the National Assembly members particularly the sitting government’s parliamentarians and ministers has highly opposed it by arguing that the Council of Islamic Ideology has opposed this bill as against Sharia and Islam.

Naveed Walter president Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) said that the bill is supportive towards efforts to minimize the daily bases cases of abductions, forced conversions and forced marriages of minority girls and to save Muslim minor girls also and the facts and figures about heinous practices are shocking as the UNICEF has said that 21 per cent of girls in Pakistan are married before age of 18 and 3 per cent are married before the age of 15 while the Pakistan has the sixth highest number of absolute child brides in the world.

Naveed Walter said further that Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1996, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage and being a member country of the South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), which adopted a regional action plan to end child marriage from 2015-2018.  Moreover, the Representatives of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including Pakistan, asserted the Kathmandu Call to Action to End Child Marriage in Asia in 2014. As part of its commitment and signatory to international rights treaties Pakistan have to ensure access to legal remedies for child brides and establish a uniform minimum legal age of marriage of 18.

Naveed Walter said further that Pakistan has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals which states to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations.

Naveed Walter said that the amendment, marriage under 18 years can lead to a fine of Rs. 200, 000 and three years of strict punishment for facilitators which will discourage culprits in minority girls cases particularly being easy targets while in general every 20 minutes, a woman dies in Pakistan of maternity-related complications and that out of every 100 females 40 percent are married below the age of 18 and every year above 1000 minority girls’ abduction, forced conversion and forced marriages are the enough points to make amendment, he added more.

Naveed Walter said further HRFP with Civil Society Organizations, Political Workers and other Stakeholders demands for this amendment to ends up the minor minority girls abductions, forced conversion and forced marriages and to give a fair chance to all Pakistani minor girls to develop their careers without their guardians hindrances, for bringing a change in society to make Pakistan a real democratic, tolerant and prosperous without spoiling the new generations lives and their futures for better education, health and all other aspects of their lives to become as healthy members of society, he added more.