PESHAWAR: Two petitioners have asked the Peshawar High Court to raise the legal marriage age for girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 16 to 18 years. Leena Qamar and Maham Nafees filed the petition through their lawyer, Imran Khan Advocate.
The petitioners have named the federal government, the provincial government, the law secretary and other officials as respondents. They argue that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains the only region where the minimum marriage age for girls stays at 16.
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The petition points out that Islamabad, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan all amended their laws after the 18th Amendment and now set the age at 18. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not followed, the petitioners say, and the gap leaves girls in the province with less protection than girls elsewhere in the country.
The petitioners also link early marriage to wider social harm. They state that marriages at a young age create serious family problems. They therefore ask the court to direct the authorities to change the law and set 18 years as the minimum marriage age for girls in the province.
