PoK: Gilgit-Baltistan leaders raise concerns over child marriage

Gilgit-Baltistan [PoK], October 22 (ANI): Civil society representatives including the head of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) expressed concerns over the absence of laws and constitutional protections for women in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan region, especially underage marriage, according to Dawn.
To empower women in Gilgit-Baltistan, they wanted swift legislation. The NCSW recently organised a two-day National Consultation on Child Marriage, with the second round taking place in Gilgit on Friday, with the assistance of partners United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Unicef, and UN-Women.
GB Minister of Women's Development Ms Dilshad Bano, GB Assembly Speaker Nazir Ahmed Advocate, GB Secretary of Social Welfare Development Fida Hussain, experts, policymakers, and representatives from federal and GB departments were among the attendees, Dawn reported.
Speakers voiced worry about the lack of regulations safeguarding women in the area, especially the practice of early child marriage.
A law to prohibit child marriage was going to be introduced in the GB assembly, according to Speaker of the GB Assembly Nazir Ahmed Advocate, Dawn reported.
He said that a law to ban underage marriages was presented to the GB legislature in 2015, but it has not yet been tabled.
As the event's primary guest, Ahmed commended the NCSW chairperson in particular for his significant interest in the problem of child marriage in Great Britain. In our society, he noted, "we do not permit anyone to drive, work, or enter into an agreement before reaching the age of majority, which is 18 years." (ANI)