Bid to marry off minor girl foiled

Accused allegedly falsified the girl’s age on the marriage certificate

TANDLIANWALA:

A case was registered against 4 accused, including a nikah khawan and witnesses, over preparing a bogus marriage certificate for a 14-year-old girl by pretending she was an adult.

Amirah Naushin, a resident of 90 RB, told police that the accused were allegedly involved in marrying her 14-year-old daughter to Aslam by falsifying her age on the marriage certifcate.

Nikah registrar Qazi Abdul Shakur performed the nikah before the witnesses Muhammad Siddique and Muhammad Aslam. Zohaib Aslam, another resident of the village was also involved. A photocopy of the bogus nikahnama was enclosed with the application submitted before police.

“My daughter is a minor,” Amirah said, adding that her daughter’s birth certificate and school leaving certificate were also attached, showing that the girl was born on September 5th 2008, therefore making her marriage illegal.

Forged marriage certificates and marriage fraud are not a new phenomenon in Pakistan, particularly when it comes to falsifying the ages of underage girls. The high-profile case of Dua Zahra last year is a prominent example, where the girl’s passport and birth certificate showed that she was 14. Moreover, her father publicly stated in 2022 that he married in 2005, making it impossible for Dua herself to be 18.

In another case in November 2022, a woman successfully proved before a court that her marriage certificate had been forged, ending a decade-long legal battle.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2023.