Setting minimum age for girls’ marriage not against Islam: Pak’s top sharia court

Islamabad: Pakistan’s top Islamic court has ruled that setting the minimum age limit for a girls’ marriage was not against the teachings of Islam as it dismissed a petition which challenged some sections of the Child Marriage Restraint Act.
The verdict may settle a controversy over the child marriage fuelled by the insistence of radical Muslims that Islam has not allowed to fix age for marriage.
A three-judge bench of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Noor Meskanzai, on Thursday heard the petition challenging some sections of the Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA) 1929.
Dawn newspaper reported that the FSC dismissed the petition and categorically declared that setting any minimum age limit for girls’ marriage by an Islamic state was not against Islam.
After examining the petition, we are of the considerate view that the petition is misconceived, hence, it is dismissed in limine, ruled the judgement authored by Justice Dr Syed Mohammad Anwer.
In the 10-page verdict, the FSC held that the sections in which the minimum age limit was prescribed by the act for both girls and boys for marriage was not un-Islamic.