‘Un-Islamic’: Senate body rejects bill seeking ban on child marriage

—Refers the bill to CII

–Committee seeks reports from home secretary over stabbing incidents

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control in its meeting on Wednesday rejected ‘The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2017 moved by Senator Sehar Kamran and referred the bill to Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for any future review.

In a committee meeting held at Parliament House, Islamabad, Chairman Rehman Malik commented on the bill, saying no law shall be approved contrary to Islamic injunctions.  “We cannot increase the age for marriage; the age which was allowed in Islam will be followed,” he remarked.

Regarding the petition filed by Naziran, daughter of Fateh Muhammad Khoso, a resident of Madras Muhallah Khandhkot, requesting for recovery of her missing father was told by the Interior Ministry that four agencies have told that the person is not in their custody and response from others is awaited.

Senator Israrullah Zehri raised the issue of missing persons in Balochistan and asked the chairman to take up the matter in the committee.

Upon which, the chairman directed the Ministry of Interior to submit a comprehensive report on the issue of missing persons in an in-camera session of the committee.  Rehman Malik further said that the foreign agencies are involved in the missing person case in order to defame Pakistan its intelligence agencies.

He also condemned the missing of youth from Shia community in Karachi during Muharram. The chairman directed the federal government and the Sindh government to brief the committee on the issue of missing of Shia youth in Karachi.

The committee also decided to take a report from the federal and provincial governments on the rising stabbing incidents in Karachi. In this regard, Sindh Police IG and Sindh home secretary were summoned to the next meeting for a briefing on the issue.

Meanwhile, Chairman Rehman Malik also appreciated the services of retired justice Javed Iqbal as head of the Missing Persons Commission and hoped that he will meet the expectations of people as the NAB chairman.

The meeting was attended by senators Shahi Syed, Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri, Tahir Hussin Mashhadi, Muhammad Javed Abbasi, Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, Shibli Faraz, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry, and others.