National & Provincial Law

The Age Of Consent And The Borders Of Belief

ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 marks a pivotal step toward a safer, progressive Pakistan KARACHI. Child rights organisations and advocates, along with concerned citizens, have warmly welcomed the passage of recent legislation on child marriages, describing it as a landmark step toward protecting the rights and well-being of children. “The passage of the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025…

Laws and domestic workers

ON assuming power after his landslide victory in West Pakistan in the 1970 elections, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto introduced five labour welfare laws and brought in amendments in other laws applicable to industrial and commercial establishments. These laws pertained to the education of workers’ children, the constitution of a workers’ welfare…

Birth, Death Registration Fees Waived

LAHORE: Under the newly-enforced Birth and Death Registration Rules 2025, the local…

LHC directed Punjab Government to revise Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929

LAHORE: Declaring the definition of ‘child’ in the Child Marriage Act, 1929…

Sindh Assembly Passes Bill for Legal Cover to Household Workers

KARACHI: In a move to protect some of the province’s most overlooked workers, the Sindh Assembly on May 11 passed the Domestic Workers Welfare Bill 2025, bringing formal safeguards to the employment and working conditions of household workers across the province. According to the bill, which requires gubernatorial assent to…

NA Toughens Law Against Child Abuse

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on May 12 gave the nod to the Anti-Rape (Amendment) Bill 2026, which declares sexual assault, physical abuse and child exploitation non-bailable offences. Under the provisions of the anti-rape amendment, law enforcement agencies must ensure child victims undergo medical examination by a certified forensic expert within…

Early Enactment of Child Marriage Restraint Law Demanded

PESHAWAR: Lawmakers and civil society representatives at a provincial consultation expressed concern over delay in enactment of a law restraining child marriages in the province and called upon the government to push forward the draft bill for cabinet approval and subsequent tabling in the provincial assembly. The high-level provincial consultation…

Child Marriage Law

Child marriage in Pakistan has never been sustained by law alone. Instead, it has survived because the law itself has remained fractured. The passage of the Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2026 by the Punjab Assembly is therefore significant for what it exposes across the federation, which is a deeply uneven…

Punjab sets Minimum Marriage Age at 18 with Passage of New Law

• Heated debate ensues after lawmakers not provided copies of Child Marriage Restraint bill • Azma protests suggestion under-18s be allowed to marry ‘with court permission’ • Minister opposes amendment seeking to void marriages consummated after abduction or forced conversion LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Monday passed the Punjab Child…

Christian Marriage Bill Faces Opposition

LAHORE: A bill has been introduced in the Punjab Assembly to amend the 153-year-old Christian Marriage Act, but it has drawn criticism from Christian religious leaders and legal experts, who argue that raising the marriage age alone is not enough and that wider reformscovering divorce, annulment, inheritance, child custody, and…

Ending Child Marriages

THE Punjab Assembly’s committee approval of the Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2026, is a welcome and necessary step. By setting 18 as the minimum legal age for marriage for both genders, the province moves to correct a long-standing imbalance and protect children from a practice that has scarred generations. The…

Punjab Sets 18 Years as Minimum Age for Marriage

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly’s Standing Committee on Local Government and Community Development has made a significant step by setting 18 years as the minimum legal age of marriage for both boys and girls across the province, abolishing the earlier provision that had permitted girls for marriage at the age of 16.…

FCC Rules Child Marriages Punishable but Not Void Under Law

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that while underage marriages may invite criminal liability under the Child Marriage Act, 1929, such unions cannot be declared void, holding that the law provides only for penal consequences and does not invalidate the marriage itself. In a detailed judgment authored by Justice…

Reproductive Health Awareness

Parliament has done something this week that once seemed nearly impossible in Pakistan’s legislative culture. It passed a bill mandating reproductive health education in schools. The Federal Supervision of Curricula Amendment Bill, cleared by both houses and awaiting presidential assent, requires that students aged 14 and above in Islamabad’s educational…

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