SUKKUR: The police took an underage couple into custody in Sukkur’s Thul town, showing that child marriages continue unabated in the Sindh province – despite a law prohibiting such marriages having been put into place.
People below the age of 18 cannot be married, under the Child Marriage Restraint Act.
The police said that the minor girl’s father and the boy’s brother have been arrested over the child marriage while a cleric who solemnised the nikkah fled the scene.
A police official said that they will have both minors medically examined to determine their age.
On November 3, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had sent a minor girl to shelter home while hearing the case of marriage of an underage couple from Punjab. An underage couple from Khanewal, Punjab had a free-will marriage in Karachi on October 24.
Bride Aqsa Tariq, 17, had filed a petition in the SHC seeking protection from her family, who was against the marriage.
“I have threats from my family,” Aqsa Tariq said in her petition, seeking protection from her family members.
Justice K.K. Agha, while hearing the case, remarked that the marriage was solemnized in Sindh and marriage law of the province will be applicable over the matter.
“After the 18th Constitutional Amendment, provincial marriage laws will be applicable in the matter of marriage,” the bench observed.
