The Supreme Court of Pakistan has questioned a man accused of marrying a 14-year-old girl that how could a grown man marry an underage girl and rejected the man’s bail application.
Justice Qazi Faez Isa made these remarks and rejected the bail application of Syed Zafar Ali Shah, who is accused of marrying a 14 year-old-girl for which a case was registered in August 2021.
Aaj News reported that a three-member bench also directed the trial court to wrap up the case quickly.
During the hearing, Justice Isa also asked Shah’s lawyer about the punishment for marrying an underage girl. To this, the lawyer replied that according to Pakistan’s laws marrying a girl under the age of sixteen is a crime and punishable by life imprisonment, however, Sharia law states that a fourteen-and-a-half-year-old girl can get married.
Justice Isa told the lawyer that he is confessing to his client’s crime by telling the court that he has married an underage girl.
Shah’s lawyer argued that the medical examination has proven the girl’s age to be seventeen years old. The court dismissed the argument saying that the official document, Birth Certificate, states that the girl is 14, therefore the court does not need to look at a medical report.
