62-year-old Pakistani lawmaker marries 14-year-old girl

New Delhi : In a shocking incident, Pakistani Maulana Salahuddin Ayubi, leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), and a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from Balochistan married a 14-year-old girl. The Pakistan police have launched an investigation into the marriage.

In an application, NGO Anjuman Dawat-o-Azeemat has requested the police to conduct inquiry into whether the girl had attained the marriageable age, and if not, take action against all those responsible under the Prevention of Child Marriage Act.

In Chitral town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an investigation was launched against the MP based on a complaint lodged by Anjuman Dawat-o-Azeemat. The NGO accused Maulana Ayubi in an application. It said that an MP from Balochistan has married a girl four times younger than her age.

Pak Observer has reported that the police have launched the probe after receiving a complaint from an NGO working for the welfare of women in Chitral. According to a report by Dawn, the girl was a student of Government Girls High School, Jughoor, where her date of birth had been recorded as of October 28, 2006, which showed that she had not attained the age of marriage. Jughoor is in Chitral town in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan.

The law does not allow marriage with the girls below 16 years of age, and if the parents showed consent for under-age girls’ marriages they would also be punished under the law. Meanwhile, the Lower Chitral DPO has said that the girl’s father has assured the authorities that he will not send his daughter until she is 16-years-old.