Child marriage is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than required age.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Children (ratified by Pakistan) considered marriage below the age of eighteen as child marriage.
The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 is aimed to restrain the solemnization of child marriage and does not affect the validity of such marriage but imposes certain penalties. This Act also declared minimum age for marriage, if a male, as eighteen years, and if a female, as sixteen years
The West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1962 in its Section 2 states that notwithstanding any custom or usage, in all questions regarding betrothal, marriage, divorce, dower, adoption, guardianship, minority, legitimacy or bastardy, family relations, the rules of decision, subject to the provisions of any enactment for the time being in force, shall be the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) in case where the parties are Muslims.
According to Sharia (Law), a minor’s father has the right to marry him/her off to whomever he chose without consulting him/her as minors lack the legal capacity to give permission for marriage. However, this marriage could not be consummated until the minor child reached the age of majority. In the period between betrothal and the consummation of marriage, the young bride would reside with her parents. Upon attainment of the age of majority, the bride could exercise her right to annul the marriage if she so wished, this is called option of puberty.
Age of majority was equated with attaining puberty and demonstrating adequate mental development. Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has declared that the laws related to the minimum age of marriage were un-Islamic and that children of any age could get married if they attain puberty. There is no fixed age of puberty. The age to attain puberty is different in males and females, and even differs in male to male and female to female. The CII agreed on the age of fifteen for puberty, although according to the CII, a girl may reach puberty at the age of nine while boys may reach puberty as soon as twelve.
(by Ahsan Shahzad)
