PESHAWAR: Rejecting the Child Marriage Restraint Bill, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman on 01-June-2025 said that ease was being created for the promotion of adultery in the country, while the process of nikah was being made difficult under the pretext of so-called legislation.
“There is no restriction of age for marriage in Islam. The only restriction is the attainment of puberty, which may occur at the age of 10, 12 or 14,” he said while addressing a news conference here.
He claimed that deliberate efforts were being made to erode the Islamic identity of the country. Previous legislation, he said, had been attributed to pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The recent legislation aimed at prohibiting the marriage of individuals under 18 was also based on certain sections of the UN Charter, he alleged. “It means that the country is still not free and remains under the clutches of a neo-colonial system,” he added.
The Maulana said that the so-called legislation was against the spirit of the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah and constituted a blatant violation of the basic principles of the Constitution, which clearly stated that no law shall be enacted that was repugnant to the Holy Quran and Sunnah. He added that due to the flawed policies of the rulers, the country was not only losing its Islamic identity but also its democratic character. This, he argued, strengthened the narrative of militant organisations that believed that the parliament had failed to deliver.
“It is strange that anti-Islam legislation is being passed in an Islamic republic,” he remarked. He recalled that a similar attempt had been made during the Musharraf regime to promote adultery in the name of women’s rights.
The current law, too, he claimed, would make the process of nikah more difficult, which would ultimately lead to an increase in adultery.
The Maulana said that the Council of Islamic Ideology and religious scholars from all schools of thought had rejected the legislation as contrary to Islamic teachings, the Holy Quran and the Sunnah.
He declared that the JUIF rejected the law and would launch a massive protest campaign against it across the country. The first major political gathering in this regard would be held in Hazara Division on June 29, he announced.
Published in News Daily on 02 June 2025.
