PHC Petition Seeks Marriage Age of 18 for Girls in KPPakistan

Under the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929, which still applies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a “child” is defined as a male under 18 and a female under 16. That definition leaves marriages involving girls aged 16 to 18 outside the ban, even though boys of the same age cannot legally marry.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is now among the last provinces still to make the change. Sindh led the way in 2014, and Punjab and Islamabad have since set 18 as the minimum marriage age for both sexes. In June, civil society groups welcomed a resolution in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly calling for the minimum age for girls to be raised to 18, and urged the provincial government to legislate without further delay. The resolution, moved by MPA Amna Sardar, pointed to Pakistan’s commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The provincial government has already signalled that change is coming. In August, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Population Welfare Tufail Anjum said legislation would be introduced to prevent marriages involving people under 18, with enforcement measures to back it up. A draft law proposing 18 as the minimum age for both sexes has been under discussion in the province since 2019.

What the courts have said

The courts have weighed in on the question before. In 2024, the Lahore High Court ruled that setting different minimum marriage ages for girls and boys breached constitutional guarantees of equality. The Federal Shariat Court has separately held that legislation setting a minimum marriage age is not contrary to Islamic principles, a position civil society groups have cited in pressing for reform in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The petition now places the issue before the Peshawar High Court, which will decide the next steps.