Building consensus: Drafts of Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2016 reviewed

PESHAWAR: The latest available provincial drafts of Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2016 were reviewed at a multi-stakeholder consultation at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday.

The event was organised by Blue Veins with the support of Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).

A press release issued by the organisation said a consensus-based, pro-girls and women amendment draft should be presented at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. The consultation was held to help reduce ideological conflicts between stakeholders and to improve the existing draft before it is taken forward.

Participants expressed disappointment and concern over the rejection of a proposal to increase the minimum marriage age for girls and boys to 18 years by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Religious Affairs. The committee members declared such a change “un-Islamic”.

Earlier, non-governmental organisations and civil society members lashed out at the provincial government for preparing a “flawed draft” of the K-P Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2016. They demanded that lawmakers make significant amendments in the draft so it could prove beneficial, practically and socially.

They said the existing version of the bill indicated the government’s lack of interest in dealing with the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th,  2016.