–Apex Islamic body says ‘legislation against child marriage and setting an age limit will lead to many complications’
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) on Friday called for initiating awareness campaigns against child marriages instead of passing legislation against the practice.
According to a statement issued by the CII spokesman, the apex religious body discussed the matter in detail in its 212th meeting and arrived at the conclusion that “legislation against child marriage and setting an age limit will lead to many complications”.
The CII’s ‘recommendation’ comes days after the Senate passed the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2018 — which proposes that the minimum age for marriage be set at 18 — amid noisy opposition from religious parties and some senior ministers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Some of the opposing senators had argued that the bill be sent to CII before being tabled in the House.
A similar bill that was tabled in the National Assembly by a PTI Hindu lawmaker a day after the Senate passed the anti-child marriage bill faced strong opposition from members of the ruling party itself.
On Friday, the CII research department presented a 10-page “comprehensive report” that detailed religious scholars’ arguments against as well as in support of passing an anti-child marriage bill into law. The report also mentioned details of age limits set for marriage by 12 Muslim countries.
CIl’s supreme body agreed that child marriage leads to “various negative consequences and problems” and that the practice “should not be encouraged”.
Furthermore, the council said that the government “should take effective steps eliminating the reasons due to which some families in Pakistan are forced to marry off children at a young age”.
The CII is a statutory body with a minimum of eight and a maximum of 20 members, including one woman, whose function is to advise parliament on whether laws are in consonance with Islamic injunctions. The council does not have legislative power.