Rights Based Evaluation of Pakistan’s Provincial Child Marriage Laws through the Lens of the ICT (Child Marriage Restraint Act) 2025

Abstract

This paper discusses in a rights-based perspective the laws that regulate child marriage in the two Pakistani provinces, Punjab and Sindh, on the basis of a new law called the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025, which has been recently ratified. It offers a doctrinal review of the child marriage restrain legislation in the provincial states and assesses its compatibility with the constitutional ideologies of Pakistan and the international human rights treaties, such as universal declaration of human rights (UDHR), the convention to rights of child (CRC) and the convention on elimination all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW). In their analysis, this paper discovers that Sindh laws based its minimum marriage age as 18 years in 2013 and it has been observed that Sindh has taken a step forward in adhering to the international standards, whereas Punjab has always kept its floor age as 16 years, which raises issues of contradiction in the laws and also allowance of violation of human rights. The federal capital adopts the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025 that forces both sexes to have an age limit of marrying at 18 years and introduces hard penalties, pointing out to inconsistencies in the laws of provinces. In the comparative analysis we point out cross legislative differences, enforcement issues and cultural-religious obstacles that inhibits efficiency of children marriage restrains. At the end of the article, recommendations are also given to align provincial laws with the ICT Act 2025 and the international commitments of Pakistan to harmonize laws to ensure uniform national standards, enhancement of enforcement measures and community participation in ridding the society of child marriage as a basic human right violation.