Police foil marriage of underage children in rahim Yar Khan

RAHIM YAR KHAN:  

Kot Sabzal police foiled an attempt to marry off 11-year-old girl to a five-year-old boy in Rahim Yar Khan on Wednesday.

A police official told Express News that Khair Muhammad Abbas, a resident of Basti Golay Da Goth, had planned to marry off his 11-year-old daughter S* with Ghaus Bakhsh’s five-year-old son I*.

He added that after receiving a complaint from residents of the area, the police raided the alleged wedding ceremony and arrested the fathers of both children. When officials arrived at the scene, preparations for the bride’s ‘rukhsati’ were underway.

After the police raid, the wedding guests and nikah khwan fled in panic. The police have registered a case under the Marriage Act and conducted raids to nab the nikah khwan.

The practice of child marriage is a harsh reality of many rural areas in Pakistan. Not only is it adversely affecting the education of these young brides, but the barbaric custom is also taking a toll on their lives.

Child marriage is a rampant practice in Pakistan.  It deprives the children of innocence and their childhood.

In June 2018, Girls Not Brides (Global Alliance to End Child Marriages) brought together the world’s leading advocates to end child marriage.

Earlier, Blue Veins Programme Coordinator Qamar Naseem said the United Nations estimates that one in three women aged twenty to twenty-four —almost 70 million women totals are married under the age of 18.

He added that approximately 23 million were married under the age of 15, and some were married as young as eight or nine years old. He mentioned that the implications of such marriages are dire as it is linked to poor health, curtailed education, violence, and lawlessness, all of which threatens international development, prosperity, and stability.

A UN report published in 2014 revealed that one in every five South Asian girls is married before she reaches the age of 15.