KARACHI: A new law proposal making it compulsory for parents in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province to marry off their children once they turn 18 has sparked an outcry and wave of mockery, with lawmakers vowing to trash the bill.
The proposal was submitted to the Sindh provincial assembly on Wednesday by a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami religious party. Called “Sindh Compulsory Marriage Act 2021,” the bill says that if parents fail to present “justified reasons” for delaying their children’s marriage, they would be fined Rs500 ($3). “This will bring wellbeing in the society,” the bill’s reasons section states.
In Sindh, the age requirement for marriage is 18 — higher than in other parts of Pakistan, where it is 16.
Syed Abdul Rasheed, the JI lawmaker who tabled the proposal, told Arab News on Thursday that it was is aimed at eliminating “social and moral evil, including rape.” Being unmarried, he claimed, prompted young people to “commit sins” and made “evil spread in the society.”
The proposal has immediately attracted criticism from both the province’s ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who distanced themselves from the bill.
PPP leader Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari took to Twitter to say the bill had nothing to do with her party and the Sindh government and will be ” bulldozed” by it.

Exactly - nothing to do with Sindh gov but will be bulldozed by #PPP #SindhGov https://t.co/sK3mvMH2FT

— Bakhtawar B-Zardari (@BakhtawarBZ) May 26, 2021

PTI lawmaker Sidra Imran bill "nonsense" and "attention seeking."

Reportedly, JI MPA Sindh Assembly Abdul Rasheed presented a legislation to PUNISH Parents if they fail to get their children married at the age of 18 years.

This is total Jamaati Nonsense... an attention seeking crap

It's an individual/family's will and against the basic rights

— • S I D R A • (@imran_sidra) May 26, 2021

Sadia Javed, a member of the Sindh assembly representing PPP, calling the bill “a publicity stunt” and urged Rasheed to review his motion.
“Parents will not wed their daughters to jobless men and no man can get employment at the age of 18 while he is still studying,” she said.
As the JI legislator defended the bill as being in accordance with Islamic teachings, Dr. Aamir Tuaseen, religious scholar and board member of the International Islamic University Islamabad, said Islamic law does not specify any age for marriage.
“Islamic Sharia issues no order to wed in a specific age. It also doesn’t impose any fine,” Tauseen told Arab News.