PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Welfare and Protection Commission (CWPC) has drafted the Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2014 proposing to increase the minimum age of a girl to marry from the existing 16 years to 18 years.

`The draft of the proposed law has been sent to the law department for vetting. Once the bill is vetted, it will be shared with the members of the provincial assembly for approval,` CWPC deputy chief commissioner Ijaz Khan told a conference on `Domestic Violence and Child Early and Forced Marriages` here on Tuesday.

The event was organised byAawaz Programme, a consortium of four NGOs, including Aurat Foundation, Strengthening Participatory Organisation, South Asia Partnership and Sungi Development Foundation.

Ijaz told participants that CWPC would lobby for the proposed law`s smooth passage in the assembly and meeting lawmakers was part of it.

He said if flaws were pointed out in the proposed law, they would be removed to ensure effective legislation against child marriages in the province.

The CWPC deputy chief commissioner said after enforcement, the proposed law would replace the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929.`The existing law is outdated and therefore, it has not been serving the purpose. The penalties in the law are very nominal and the mechanism provided for checking child marriages are also not effective,` he said.

Ijazsaidthebillproposedthatthe offence of child marriage should be non-bailable and non-compoundable meaning that no compromises could be made among the relevant parties.

He said the commission had proposed that the police should be empowered to take cognisance of the offence as currently, the offence was non-cognizable.

The CWPC deputy chief commissioner said under the law, the mini-mum age to marry was 18 years for boys and 16 years for girls and that the commission had proposed that it should be 18 years for girls, too.

He said though the issue of marriageable age was thorny, the commission would try to convince lawmakers about it.

Child protection commissioner Dr Murad Afridi said the working group, which had prepared the draf t law, had recommended increasing punishment for all those involved in child marriages.

Barrister Hashim Raza discussed another proposed law, Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2014, prepared by the Aurat Foundation.-Bureau Report