K-P urged to follow KSA in ending child marriages

It is estimated that by ending child and early marriages, Pakistan could potentially save $77 million by 2030

PESHAWAR: With Saudi Arabia moving to prohibit child marriages, the provincial government must also follow its lead and pass legislation which bars under-age marriages.

This was urged by the Provincial Alliance to End Early Child and Forced Marriages in a statement issued on Tuesday.

It said that the Saudi Ministry of Justice has prohibited marriages of people under 18-years-of-age while it set 18 as the minimum age for marriage among men and women. By contrast, Pakistani law sets the minimum age for marriage for men at 18 and women at 16. A bill to set the minimum age of marriage for girls at 18 had been passed by the Senate earlier in the year.

The alliance further said that Pakistan is amongst the six countries in the world where underage marriages are registered. UNICEF’s State of Children Report 2017 states that child marriage prevalence rates in Pakistan remain alarmingly high at more than 21% of girls who get married before the age of 18 and 3% before they turn 15-years-old.

Sindh and Balochistan leading the list of regions for the 1.9 million child marriages registered across the country. Curiously, the alliance pointed out that unlike the rest of the country, Sindh is the only province which has set the minimum age of marriage for girls at 18, yet it leads the charts for the prevalence of child marriage with 33%. It is followed by K-P with 29%, Balochistan at 22%, and Punjab 20%.

It is estimated that by ending child and early marriages the country could potentially save $77 million by 2030.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2020.