Girls not yet fit to be brides.

Byline: Shaikh Abdur Rashid

Last month, reportedly an MNA in his late 50s, violating the Child Marriage Restraint Act, married a 14-year-old girl in Balochistan. The girl was not the only victim of the tradition of making girls of tender age brides of aged grooms, but many such heinous marriages occur almost every day across Pakistan.

These marriages directly or indirectly are facilitated, abetted and solemnized by some religious extremists. Unfortunately, many culprits of the crime go unpunished due to the lack of implementation of child marriage laws.

The practice of child marriage, which is incongruent with common sense and the legal system, deprives girls of the rights to a childhood, schooling, health, selection of husband of their own choice and protection from abuse, violence and discrimination. Moreover, underage marriage has a damaging effect on girls. It makes it hard for them to stay in school. It makes them prey to domestic violence and to many health problems.

Though child marriage is a global phenomenon, it is ubiquitous in Pakistan. According to the World Health Organization report, globally 12 million girls are married annually while under 18. It means one girl becomes a child bride after every three seconds. Of these girl brides, 21 percent are Pakistani.

Globally, some constructive initiatives have been undertaken to end child marriages. The global partnership consisted of over 1300 organizations worldwide, which was established in 2011 with the objective to make the world a child-marriage-free place, has made some encouraging progress. The partnership has succeeded in bringing about a decline in the global child marriage rate. It prevented around 25 million child marriages during the last decade. The partner organizations have been making collective efforts round the clock to end child marriages and empower girls to achieve and exercise all their rights.

We should help girls seek a carefree life beyond child marriages. To this end, some concrete measures are to be taken to stringently and effectively implement the concerned laws to bring an end to child marriages. Further, services of the liberal-minded Islamic religious scholars of a good repute should be availed as they may convince the people to...