Tag: Child Marriage

ISLAMABAD – The practice of child marriage should be avoided at every level as it was putting the lives of mothers in perils, resulting in increased mortalities and socioeconomic pressure over the families.  Farkhanda Aurangzeb, Senior Consultant Human Rights Education at the National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan said this while talking to APP.  She said that they were concentrating on family planning and reforming education system including revalidation of students and teachers in order to get desired results.

 She said that every year in November, the Ministry of Human Rights was launching a 16-day campaign on women’s fundamental rights through a series of short informative videos covering important topics including sexual harassment, rape, marriage contract, filing an FIR and women’s right to inheritance.

Source: The Nation

Madiha Nisar, vice-chairperson of WPC, says keeping girls in school is one of the best ways to prevent child marriages. — Reuters/File

PESHAWAR: Religious leaders from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here on Monday expressed their resolve to promote the rights of girls, women and all vulnerable segments of society.

They were speaking at a dialogue on ending child marriages jointly organised by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) and Child Welfare and Protection Commission, according to a statement issued here.

Speaking on the occasion, CII Chairman Dr Qibla Ayaz said religious leaders from across Pakistan were invited to join them in the campaign to end harmful social practices like child marriage through awareness and behavioural change.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Khateeb Maulana Tayyab Qureshi said faith-inspired initiatives were instrumental in promoting behavioural and attitudinal change to discourage forced marriages.

Qamar Naseem, programme coordinator of Blue Veins and lead of the Provincial Alliance to End Early Child and Forced Marriages, said every citizen had a responsibility to discourage child marriages, to ensure that children completed their education and reached their full potential.

Madiha Nisar, vice-chairperson of WPC, said keeping girls in school was one of the best ways to prevent child marriages. “Child marriage limits girls’ access to quality education,” she added.

Source: Dawn                

OKARA: Parents of a minor girl and boy were booked on Monday along with seven others who allegedly arranged their nikah at 53/2L village around a month ago.

As per the first information report (FIR), Sadar police received information that Noor Ahamad, a resident of 53/2L village, and Manzoor of Samadpura locality of the city arranged nikah of their minor children — Ayesha Noor (9) and Ramzan (16) — on 31st of July, 2021 at the village.

The police learnt that others, including Shukat,Riaz, Faryad, Samina (wife of Manzoor), Sakina (wife of Noor Ahmad), were also involved in arranging the nikah ceremony of the minors.

After confirming that Rukhsati of the minor “bride” was underway at 53/2L village, a police team conducted a raid and arrested the parents of the minors, while the others managed to escape.

The police also took in custody the birth certificates of the both minors, the marriage certificate and a picture of the event. On the report of ASI Ashfaq Ahmad, a case was registered against the suspects under sections 498-B of the PPC and 3, 4, 5 and 6 of The Child Marriage Restraint Act-1929.

Source: Dawn

HARIPUR: A Christian couple here on Wednesday alleged the abduction, forced conversion and marriage of their ‘underage’ daughter.

They also accused a local PTI leader and police of supporting the accused.

The girl’s mother, Noreen Maseeh, of Mubin Banda area in Ghazi tehsil reported the matter to the police and released a video message along with husband Francis Maseeh.

In a written complaint, she told the police that her daughter, a ninth grader, went missing from her room at around 12:45am on Aug 3 while preparing for her exam paper next morning.

The complainant alleged that a resident of the locality kidnapped her daughter and a local PTI leader’s son was involved in the abduction.

Seeks protection amid threats

She insisted that the PTI leader had promised help in her daughter’s early return but didn’t keep his promise.

The woman insisted that she learned from resident Akhtar Shah on Aug 9 about the court marriage of her daughter with the kidnapper in Swabi district after conversion to Islam.

She claimed that her daughter wasn’t eligible for marriage as the Nadra registration certificate showed that she was born on Jan 10, 2007, and her age was 14.6 years.

“My daughter is a minor child, who can’t be married off under the law,” she said.

Ms Noreen said she again contacted the PTI leader, who hurled threats at her and her family and pressured her for a compromise.

She complained that the Ghazi police didn’t register an FIR and urged her not to pursue the case insisting her daughter had eloped with the accused and converted to Islam before marrying him in the court.

The complainant sought protection for her family and relatives.

When contacted, SHO of Ghazi police station Shafiqur Rehman said the police formally received an application six days after the ‘kidnapping’ incident.

He said the application was ambiguous as the Christian couple didn’t ‘directly’ name anyone for their daughter’s abduction.

The SHO said the preliminary investigation showed that the Christian girl had solemnized court marriage in Swabi after converting to Islam of her own free will, but he hadn’t received any documents for it.

He said he had called the Christian family to the police station thrice to name the alleged kidnapper for FIR registration and girl’s recovery.

Source: Dawn