The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) has challenged the constitutional validity of the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025, before the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), seeking a declaration that certain provisions are repugnant to the holy Quran and Sunnah.
Filed under Article 203D by counsel Kamran Murtaza, read with Article 227 of the Constitution, the petition argues the law’s definition of a “child” as any person under 18 years old does not align with the Islamic concept of puberty as the onset for marriageability.
The petition refers to a 2023 FSC ruling that had dismissed a similar challenge to the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013 by declaring that fixing the minimum marriage age at 18 is not repugnant to the injunctions of Islam. It says the 2023 judgment presented the welfare of children and the importance of education and relied heavily on the concept of “mental maturity” as a precondition for marriage, citing Verse 6 of Surah An-Nisa.
However, the JUIF petition argues, classical Islamic jurisprudence has never regarded mental maturity as a precondition for the validity of nikah. Mental maturity, it states, is only a prerequisite for the transfer of property to an orphan and the earlier judgment had conflated two distinct Quranic injunctions concerning different matters.
It has asked the FSC to overrule its reasoning in the 2023 case to the extent of conflating mental maturity with a criterion for marriageability.
Requesting the FSC to declare Section 2(a) of the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 repugnant to the Quran and Sunnah, the petition states it classifies pubescent persons as “children” incapable of contracting nikah. It also seeks directions for the federal government to amend the definition of “child” to exclude persons who have attained puberty, stating this can be established by physical signs or by the age of 15 years.
Additionally, the petition is seeking a judicial exception clause for underage marriages, arguing parties seeking to contract a marriage below the age of 18 should be permitted to seek special permission from courts upon demonstrating genuine exceptional circumstances, including attainment of puberty and financial capacity.
Further, the petition argues the mandatory minimum sentence of two years’ rigorous punishment for anyone involved in an underage marriage is repugnant to the Islamic principles of ta’zir and adl and seeks to amend the provision to allow judicial discretion in sentencing within a prescribed range.
The petition also wants Section 5 of the Act declared repugnant to the holy Quran and Sunnah to the extent that it classifies consensual cohabitation within a valid nikah between under- and overage individuals as “child abuse,” and imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.