Islamabad, May 15 (IANS) A leading minority rights organisation in Pakistan has raised grave concerns over the persistence of child marriage across the country's Punjab province, warning that discriminatory laws and entrenched social norms continue to deny countless girls their childhood, education, and basic rights.

Citing Pakistan's Bureau of Statistics, the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM) said on Friday that 15 per cent of children in Punjab province are married before turning 18, describing the numbers as a reflection of "stolen childhoods" where young girls are pushed from schools into unwanted marriages.

The rights body said that the legal framework itself had long reinforced gender inequality by setting the minimum age at 18 for boys and 16 for girls, reflecting what it described as "institutional normalisation of inequality".

Expressing concern over the lack of effective legal safeguards, the VOPM said, "Laws, at their core, are meant to protect the vulnerable. Yet here, vulnerability is negotiated, diluted, and rationalised. We comfort ourselves with distance, pretending that injustice is somehow less urgent when it does not knock on our own doors.

"But what does that say about us? Are we so detached that we allow cycles of abuse — rape, maternal death, violence - to continue simply because they remain unseen? Have we convinced ourselves that status is earned, rather than inherited by chance?’ it questioned.

The rights body noted that opponents of reform in Pakistan rarely defend child marriage outright but instead shift the conversation, invoking religion to deflect criticism and avoid meaningful confrontation.

“And perhaps the most suffocating barrier of all is fear. Fear of being labelled blasphemous. Fear of questioning interpretations presented as absolute. Under the banner of the ‘Islamic Republic of Pakistan', many argue that reform itself becomes a threat,” the VOPM mentioned.

According to the rights body, this debate was never about “faith versus law” but about responsibility - whether a nation that takes pride in its identity can ensure the protection of children.

It added that loopholes within the laws in Pakistan erode the very purpose - enabling exploitation, offering legal cover to those who seek to manipulate the legal ambiguities.

In the process, the VOPM said that discriminatory legal provisions "ignore the reality of what child marriage inflicts: not just physical harm, but psychological scars that last a lifetime."

--IANS

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