LAHORE: The HRCP has praised the Punjab Assembly’s passage of the Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2026, setting 18 as the minimum age for marriage and criminalising underage marriage as a non-bailable offence.
This is a significant step towards safeguarding children’s rights—one that all provinces, barring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have now taken.
We urge the provincial government to ensure robust implementation such that union councils, registrars, and law enforcement personnel to whom such cases are reported are held strictly accountable. Legislative progress must, however, be matched by social measures to end child marriage and uphold the interests of children across the country.
