Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazl ur Rehman has announced nationwide protests against the recently passed child marriage bill, which sets the minimum marriage age at 18 in Islamabad.
Speaking at a press conference in Peshawar on Saturday, Fazlur Rehman called the legislation contrary to Islamic teachings and an attack on Pakistan’s religious identity, claiming it was shaped by foreign influence rather than Islamic principles.
The new law, signed by President Asif Ali Zardari, criminalizes marriages involving minors in the federal capital, with strict penalties for officiants and adult men who marry underage girls.
Fazl ur Rehman argued that such legislation undermines religious values and warned it could empower extremist narratives. The bill, introduced by PPP lawmakers, has faced strong opposition from religious groups and the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which maintains that Islamic jurisprudence allows marriage upon reaching puberty.
JUI-F leader Maulana Salahuddin Ayubi reportedly married to a 14-year-old girl from Chitral in 2021. Civil society groups, including the Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society Network (PCSN), demanded Ayubi’s resignation, citing a violation of the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, which sets the legal marriage age for girls at 16 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and most of Pakistan.
According to school records, the girl was born in October 2006 and was a student at Government Girls High School, Jughoor, at the time of the marriage.
Pakistan has the sixth-highest number of child brides in the world, with more than 21% of girls married before the age of 18 and 3% before 15.
Prevalence is highest in Sindh (33%), followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (29%), Balochistan (22%), and Punjab (20%).