LAHORE: A high court in Pakistan on Monday struck down a section of the Child Marriage Act, 1929 that dealt with gender-based age distinction and ordered the government in the Punjab province to revise the legislation.

The verdict was given on a petition seeking amendments to the Child Marriage Act over apparent distinction on the basis of gender. The petitioner had stated in his petition that the Constitution of Pakistan granted equal rights to men and women.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) declared as “discriminatory” the 95-year-old act’s Section 2(a) and (b), which respectively fixed 18 and 16 years as legal ages for boys and girls for marriage. 

“In sum, the words in section 2(a) viz . ‘if a male ….and if a female is under sixteen years of age’ being unconstitutional are held to be without lawful authority and of no legal effect. They are struck down,” Judge Shahid Karim wrote in his five-page verdict.

“The Govt. of Punjab (its relevant department) is directed to issue the revised version of 1929 Act (based on this judgment) within the next fifteen days and shall also upload that version on its website for information.”

Though the aforementioned law had been replaced by the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 2015 to criminalize child marriage in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.

Women in Pakistan are often deprived of their basic rights and forced to marry against their will, in some cases even before reaching the legal age for marriage.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), about 500 women are killed each year by their family members over accusations that their “honor” has been violated, which are often triggered when women marry by choice.

The court observed there was a need to take effective steps against child marriages as the marriage laws in the country were meant to primarily keep in view the “social, economic and educational factors rather than religious.”

In his verdict, the judge referred to Article 25 of the constitution, which says: “All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law. There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex.”

“The definition of ‘child’ in the 1929 Act while making a distinction on the basis of age, is not based on an intelligible criteria having nexus with the object of the law,” the court ruled.

“The definition is indeed a special provision for the protection of women but in the process it tends to afford greater protection to males by keeping their age of marriage higher than females.”