Balochistan's anti child-marriage bill pending for last 8 years

Quetta [Pakistan], August 6 : The draft for an anti-child marriage bill has been pending before the Balochistan Assembly for the last eight years, a legislator briefed the consultation meeting on the issue of child marriage.
The consultation, held in collaboration with the Education and Youth Empowerment Society and Girls, not Brides, decided that a committee comprising all stakeholders would be formed to initiate dialogue on "Child marriage" for developing a consensus among all stakeholders, Dawn reported.
Shama Ishaq, a politician from the National Party, said that the delay was due to hurdles created by certain quarters.
The session was presided over by Balochistan's Parliamentary Secretary on Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Science and Technology, Rubaba Khan Buledi.
Various participants expressed concern over the negative attitude of religious parties and some other quarters regarding the child marriage bill, reported Dawn.
The female legislators said that women MPAs made all the efforts to reach a consensus on the age limit and persuaded the male members to support the child marriage bill but then they had to face strong opposition from the religious parties' legislators on the age limit issue.
Buledi and Parliamentary Secretary on Women's Development Mahjabeen Sheeran informed the meeting that the bill was sent to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) twice for its opinion on the age limit issue.
The CII chairman had sent his recommendations, but once again these were sent to the council for review, according to Dawn.
Commission on the Status of Women Balochistan Chairperson Fauzia Shaheen and Dr Buledi suggested that a special committee should be set up which would hold meetings with the political party's heads and get approval from them for consensus on the age limit for child marriage.
Parliamentary Secretary Science and Technology Law and Parliamentary Affairs Dr Rubaba Khan Buledi, Parliamentary Secretary Women Chairperson of Commission on Status of Women Balochistan Fauzia Shaheen, Former MPA of Pashtokhwa Milli Awami Party Arifah Sadiq Advocate, MPA Shakeela Naveed Dehwar, Zeenat Shahwani, Secretary Social Welfare Abdul Latif Kakar, Shahida Habib Alizai, Leader of People's Party Sana Durrani, Central Vice President of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists Saleem Shahid, BNP Awami Central leaders Dr Nashanas Lehri, Sami Shariq, Mir Bahram Lehri and Mir Behram Baloch were also present during the conference, reported The Express Tribune.