Daily Times Editorials 27th Sept 2025

Moral Contradictions

The Lahore High Court has ruled that under Islamic law, a marriage contracted after attaining puberty is valid, even if the individual is below the age set in the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929.

In Punjab, where the statute fixes the minimum marriage age at 18 for males and 16 for females, the effect of this judgment is chilling: the protective barrier of law collapses the moment a girl of fifteen is declared to have reached puberty. In one stroke, the court has allowed the biological accident of adolescence to erase the legal guarantee of childhood.

This ruling collides with a profoundly different vision of Pakistan’s future. Only months ago, the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025, was unanimously passed.

That law establishes 18 as the minimum marriage age for both genders, criminalises those who facilitate underage unions, and most significantly treats sexual relations with a minor as statutory rape. Lauded internationally as a beacon of hope, the Act reflects a moral consensus that a child’s place is in school, not in the marital bed.

Placed side by side, the ICT law and the LHC ruling embody two clashing futures. In Islamabad, a fifteen-year-old is recognised and protected as a child, yet just a few hundred kilometres away, she may be handed over as a wife. This patchwork is incoherent, yes, but worse, it is a deliberate abandonment of Pakistan’s most vulnerablePakistan travel guide

Civil society has fought for decades to secure stronger protections against child marriage, and its persistence won Islamabad’s breakthrough. Sindh has also legislated a minimum marriage age of 18 for both genders.

Yet as long as those in positions of authority cling to outdated laws or interpretations, the progress of one jurisdiction will be undone by the regression of another. Poverty, climate displacement, and patriarchal customs already conspire to drive families into marrying off their daughters. To add judicial sanction to this cruelty is to turn injustice into impunity. Parliament must now rise to its responsibility and legislate a uniform national minimum marriage age of 18 across all provinces, closing the loopholes that courts exploit.

The Supreme Court should also provide binding guidance to ensure that puberty is never again treated as a license to rob girls of their childhood. Anything less would be an abandonment of children to the whims of prejudice and patriarchy. *

New Dawn

Pakistan’s diplomacy has seldom staged such a remarkable re-entry onto the world’s centre stage as it did this week in Washington. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s first Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump was more than a ceremonial encounter, for it marked the opening of a new chapter in Pakistan-US relations. For a country too often cast as peripheral, this was a moment of validation and renewed relevance.

The optics were not hollow. Pakistan has secured tangible commitments. Trump hailed Pakistan’s efforts against terrorism and underscored cooperation in averting a regional crisis, while the Prime Minister showcased a proactive agenda: inviting American investment in agriculture, information technology, mining and energy. A minerals agreement with a US firm worth half a billion dollars has already set the tone, drawing Pakistan’s untapped resources into global supply chains. Equally significant, Washington has agreed to apply a 19 per cent tariff on Pakistani goods under its new reciprocal trade plan, a marked improvement from the levels Islamabad once feared. This places Pakistan among the more favourably treated partners in South Asia and signals that Islamabad is not only back in Washington’s calculations but may be a preferred collaborator in key sectors.

India’s unease was immediate and predictable. New Delhi’s commentators have begun calling this the greatest US tilt towards Pakistan in the last five decades, revealing more about their anxieties than about any genuine imbalance. Having long basked in Washington’s strategic embrace, India finds it difficult to accept a Pakistan that reasserts itself diplomatically. Nor is the domestic chorus of cynicism from PTI circles any less transparent. Their criticisms are shaped more by political opportunism than by sober analysis. This outreach should inspire pride, yet it must also instil prudence. Ties with the United States have historically swung between peaks of cooperation and troughs of neglect. Foreign capital, moreover, cannot on its own guarantee prosperity. Unless managed inclusively, mineral wealth may enrich a few while leaving communities behind.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s call at the United Nations for “proactive, not provocative” leadership in South Asia captured the moment well. Pakistan has signalled its willingness to lead with responsibility, to turn opportunity into stability. If nurtured with care, the opening with Washington can serve as a springboard for economic transformation and regional equilibrium.

This is a beginning, not an end. Pakistan must now ensure that diplomatic goodwill is translated into enduring partnerships. Critics at home and abroad may scoff, yet the path forward lies in steady, realistic, and confident engagement. Managed wisely, this turn in Washington can herald nothing less than a national resurgence. *