LAHORE - Lawmakers at a debate held yesterday to mark International Day of the Girl Child assured the girls of taking up the issue of increase in marriage age limit in the Punjab Assembly.
Girls at the function held at Carlton Hotel on Empress Road urged parliamentarians to play their role in setting up minimum age of marriage for girls from 16 to 18 years in Punjab by amending “The Punjab Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act 2015.
Endorsing the girls stance on marriage age limit, PTI MPA Musarrat Jamshed Cheema pledged to take up the issue by submitting a resolution in Punjab Assembly. MNA Rukhsana Naveed also assured the participants of the debate she will take up the issue in National Assembly. MPA Sadia Sohail Rana, Sumaira Bukhari and Raheela Khadim Hussain also seconded the girls demand for child rights.
Shafaq, a child rights champion presented a charter of demands to parliamentarians urging them to expedite the process. Speaking on the occasion, Mahroosh urged parliamentarians to look into matter and reminded them of UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s observations in 2009 and 2016.
The UN urged Pakistan to remove discrepancies between the age of boys and girls. Another participant, Afrozish, urged the effective implementation of Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan which guarantees for every boy and girl between the age of 5 to 16 years.