Pak lawmaker’s marriage with minor questioned in Parliament

By Hamza Ameer Islamabad, March 6 : In a shocking incident, a 64-year-old lawmaker of Jamiat-Ulema-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) has married a 14-year-old minor girl, raising serious questions and demands of explanation from the party leadership in the Pakistan parliament.
JUI-F’s Maulana Salahuddin Ayubi, a sitting Member of National Assembly (MNA), had recently married a 14-year-old minor girl from Chitral in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has demanded the JUI-F leadership to come out with an explanation on the marriage of the lawmaker with a minor girl, terming the reported marriage as “very disturbing news”.
“Very disturbing news of an underage girl’s marriage had been reported in Indian media today. The reported marriage of a JUI-F MNA with a young girl was a violation of the Child Marriage Restraint Act,” he said while speaking in the Parliament session.
“The government isn’t investigating the matter, but the JUI-F leadership should come out and deny the incident before the House, because we and Pakistan’s parliament are being ridiculed over this across the world,” he added.
“Today I raised issue of under age marriage by a JUI MNA, I hope all sane voices in NA will take notice of this absurd act by a member of National Assembly and will join voice to seek explanation,” Chaudhry tweeted.