May 29, 2025
By Rehan Piracha & Xari Jalil
LAHORE
Activists are fiercely condemning the Council of Islamic Ideology’s (CII) aggressive attempts to halt the enactment of the Child Marriage Act. This critical legislation has already achieved a significant milestone, passing unanimously through both the National Assembly and the Senate, and now awaits the President of Pakistan’s crucial assent to become a fully enacted law.
The CII has a documented history of creating significant opposition to legislation aimed at empowering or protecting women and girls. Their past resistance includes vocal opposition to the Domestic Violence Bill, the Violence against Women Act, the bill addressing forced conversions of Hindu girls, the Women Protection Bill, and the Punjab Child Marriage Bill. The council consistently justifies its objections by asserting that such bills are “unacceptable under Shariah”. In other decisions, the CII has also opposed making thalassemia screening before marriage mandatory, suggesting it should be voluntary to avoid complicating the nikah process. The council recommended awareness campaigns instead.
In its current stance on the Child Marriage Act, the CII has similarly declared that a girl’s marriageable age can be determined by the onset of puberty, which can be as young as nine years, coinciding with the commencement of menstruation. This position stands in stark contrast to the legal frameworks of many other Muslim-majority countries, where child age limits for marriage are consistently set at 18 years. Examples include Indonesia (19 years), Malaysia (18 years), Egypt (18 years), Jordan (18 years), Tunisia (18 years), Morocco (18 years), Azerbaijan (18 years), and Saudi Arabia (18 years).
CII’s rejection of the Bill
The CII rejected the Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2025, on Tuesday, deeming it contrary to Islamic teachings. The bill, already passed by both the National Assembly and Senate, aims to set the minimum marriage age at 18 and criminalize marriages below this age as child abuse.
Following a meeting chaired by Dr. Raghib Hussain Naeemi, the CII stated that MNA Sharmila Faruqui’s proposed legislation did not align with Islamic injunctions. While acknowledging the problems of underage marriages, the council insisted these should be discouraged through other means, but found the bill itself unacceptable under Islamic law.
The CII also criticized the legislative process, noting the bill was not referred to them for religious review, which they consider standard procedure. A similar draft bill from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was also rejected on comparable grounds.
Government’s response
On Thursday, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, who is the Chairperson of the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) released a statement saying that the NCRC rejected the concerns raised by the CII on the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2025 passed by the National Assembly and Senate to prevent child marriage.
“As an advisory body mandated under the NCRC Act 2017 to monitor, promote, and protect the rights of all children, the Commission reiterates that child marriage is a violation of children’s rights,” she stated. “It disrupts their education, endangers their health, increases exposure to domestic violence, and undermines their overall development and dignity.”
Pakistan is a signatory to the UNCRC, she highlighted, which obligates the State to protect children from all forms of harm, abuse, and exploitation. Besides this, Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan ensures the right to life and liberty, which inherently includes the right to a safe and healthy childhood.
“In 2023 the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), in keeping in line with the infamous Arzoo Raja case of forced conversion, which was filed due to alleged non-compliance with the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act 2013 – that puts 18 as minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls – ruled that it is the prerogative of the state to set the minimum age for marriage as well as defining puberty in line with Islamic jurisprudence that holds that puberty is part of a two-tier criteria, which includes the characteristic of reasonable judgement that can only be reached through fulfilling of mandatory education that is hindered by early marriage,” she said.
She said that the Commission reiterates that protecting children from marriage before they reach physical and psychological maturity is in line with both the spirit of Islam, which emphasizes protection, compassion, and justice, and our constitutional and international obligations.
Responding to concerns raised by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), PPP MNA Sharmila Faruqi, who tabled the bill in the National Assembly, argued that the issue of underage marriage should not be framed in religious terms but rather as a matter of human rights.
“We are not against marriage itself. However, it is unjust to allow girls as young as 13 or 14 to marry when those under 18 cannot vote, obtain national identity cards, or even secure a driver’s licence,” she said.
Faruqi cited a 2022 ruling by the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), which affirmed the state’s authority to set a minimum marriage age. “This bill is fully consistent with Islamic principles,” she wrote in a May 22 post on X, sharing the FSC judgment. “The Federal Shariat Court, in its judgment dated 6 March 2023 (PLD 2022 FSC 1), unequivocally ruled that “fixing a minimum age limit for marriage by the State or a Government is not repugnant to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah.”
Senator Sherry Rehman, in a media statement, urged the CII to reconsider its stance in light of the FSC’s decision and the practices of many Muslim countries, where 18 is recognized as the age of maturity.
Meanwhile, academic and rights activist Dr. Arfana Mallah criticised the CII’s composition, noting that its members were appointed based on political affiliation rather than scholarly expertise or adherence to global human rights standards.
“It is time to discard these outdated Molvi that are accommodated in the IIC on a political basis. A true scholar would never reject such an important bill,” Mallah wrote in her post, sharing the statement of the NCCR rejecting concerns expressed by the CII over the Islamabad Marriage Restraint Act.
In a separate thread, Nida Usman, founder of Women in Law Pakistan, called on activists, lawmakers, and rights organizations to denounce the CII’s pro-child marriage stance.
1. In a Muslim majority parliament what even is the point of a supra body like cii? None at all!
2. Cii are child haters.
3. Is ppp going to take a stand for its bill and denounce cii as it denounced SC when Bilawal was lobbying for 26th amendment?
— Nida Usman Ch (@NidaUsmanCh) May 28, 2025
She demanded the council’s disbandment, arguing that a Muslim-majority parliament has no need for a supra-legislative religious body.
“Do we realise that there is no concept of clergy in Islam so really law making should only be done by those in Parliament,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, Mohsin Dawar, former MNA and chairperson of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), also rejected the CII objections. “I stand against child marriages,” he wrote plainly, in a post on X on Thursday, May 29. “Let’s protect the future of our children.”
Child rights activist, Arshad Mahmood Khan, said that it was worth noting that the Parliament had passed the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2025, and it was now awaiting the President’s assent.
“If the President withholds assent based on the CII’s opinion, it could be seen as undermining Parliament’s sovereignty,” he said. Both awareness and behavior change, as well as legislation, are crucial in addressing child marriage, he said.