Punjab’s government has announced the Child Marriage Restraint Ordinance 2026, declaring that the minimum age of marriage is now 18 years for both boys and girls. Child marriage has also been made a non-bailable offence, with punishments of up to seven years in prison and fines reaching Rs1 million. On paper, […]
A new national factsheet on violence against children (VAC) has sent a chilling reminder of how unsafe childhood remains across Pakistan. Covering the first six months of 2025, the document doesn’t just present numbers — it exposes a system that repeatedly fails to see, protect and deliver justice for its youngest […]
In a shocking and infuriating development, Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has outright rejected a bill aimed at criminalizing child marriages in Islamabad, branding it “un-Islamic.” This regressive stance is not just a blow to progress—it’s a brutal betrayal of millions of children trapped in one of the world’s most […]