The practice of child marriage continues despite authorities’ claims of eliminating it after the implementation of 310A of Pakistan Penal Code in 2005

Naik Muhammad Malik:

Two girls, aged 12 and seven, had been offered in Nikah in abstentia as compensation to an aggrieved family for a “crime” committed by the girls’ brother in Bundial village in Qaidabad 40 kilometres from Mianwali. The Panchayat head has threatened the father of the girls to hand them over to the aggrieved party before April 20.

Rehmatullah, the girl’s brother, developed relations with neighbour Ghulam Muhammad’s daughter Shahnaz. Rehmatullah and Shehnaz later eloped in March 2006. They informed their parents of their marriage and sent them a copy of their Nikah Nama.

Shahnaz’s father approached the local Panchayat, saying that the couple had dishonoured him. Upon receiving Ghulam Muhammad’s complaint, Malik Muhammad Yar Bandial, the village landlord summoned the Panchayat. The gathering ordered Rehmatullah’s father to hand over his daughter as compensation to Shahnaz’s already married brother.

Amina Bibi, 12, will be handed over to Muhammad Afzal, 28, a father of two. Rehana Bibi, 7, will be handed over to Ghulam Muhammad’s nephew, Ramzan, eight. A Nikah ceremony was also held where Muhammad Esab, the local imam, performed the ceremony in absentia. The Nikah, however, has not been registered.

The Panchayat has threatened the father of the girls not to report the matter to police or press. The Panchayat also banned the entry of Shahnaz and Rehmatullah to the village.

“A tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye,” the Panchayat members warned anyone daring to commit ‘dishonour’. Ghulam Muhammad, the father of the girls, has appealed to the chief justices of the Supreme Court, Lahore High Court, Punjab Chief Minister, inspector general of Punjab police to intervene in the matter and save his daughters.

When contacted the Panchayat head described it as a “minor incident involving a Kamee (low-cast) family”.

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