Underage couple taken into custody, two nabbed over child marriage

SUKKUR: Child marriages continue unabated in the Sindh province despite a law outlawing such marriages put in place as police took an underage couple into custody in Sukkur’s Thul town.

The police said 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 they will have both minors medically examined to determine their age.

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People below the age of 18 can’t be married under the Child Marriage Restraint Act.

On November 03, 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 married on free will in Karachi on October 24.

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Bride Aqsa Tariq 17, had filed a petition in Sindh High Court seeking protection from her family, who was against the marriage. “I have threat 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 has 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.