Bilawal calls for end to child marriage in Pakistan

PPP chairman says every 20 minutes a girl dies in Pakistan as a result of underage pregnancy

As the debate over legislation to ban child marriage in Pakistan continues, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutt0-Zardari calls for the country to adopt legislation that makes under-18 marriages illegal.

Bilawal, in a tweet, said every 20 minutes a girl dies in Pakistan as a result of underage pregnancy and that the country should follow Sindh's example, where marriage age is 18. He stated the provincial law recently stopped an adult marrying a 10-year-old.

UAE marriage age is 18, Indonesia is 18 & Turkey is also 18. Are they not Muslim countries? In Sindh where marriage age is 18, we saw how law stopped an adult marrying a 10 year old! Every 20 minutes a girl dies in Pakistan as a result of underage pregnancy. #EndChildMarriage

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) May 4, 2019

He further added that in other Islamic countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Turkey the legal marriage age is 18. "Are they not Muslim countries," the PPP chairman asks.



The ministers of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were at loggerheads over the bill pertaining to marriage of persons below the age of 18. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday expressed his displeasure at some “elected representatives and ministers’ opposition” of the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2018 in the National Assembly.

The bill — that has already been passed by the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights as well as the upper house itself — was presented in the National Assembly on Tuesday, and it polarised parties during the debate. Even though the bill was tabled by Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of the PTI, several of his fellow party leaders strongly opposed it.