Federal Shariat Court | Pakistan

A law banning the marriage of children under eighteen years of age has been challenged in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) in Islamabad, arguing that it was against the Constitution as well as the tenets of Islam and should be abolished. The bill, which sought to protect the rights of children and eradicate marriages of children under the age of 18, was signed into law by the president on May 27 after sailing through both houses of parliament. However, the move attracted strong opposition from the religious segments of society, with the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) — a constitutional body responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic issues to the government and parliament — ruling that “classifying marriage under the age of 18 as rape did not conform with Islamic law”. A citizen, Shahzada Adnan, filed a petition through his lawyer, Advocate Mudassar Chaudhry, against the recently enacted Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025. The petition has been filed against the Ministry of In...

A petition has been filed in the Federal Shariat Court challenging the recently passed Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2025, which prohibits the marriage of girls under the age of 18.