A judicial magistrate in Karachi has said that a person marrying a girl under the age of 18 can be charged with rape, while emphasising that any marriage contract involving a child is unlawful since it cannot be deemed consensual.
Judicial Magistrate (South) Abdul Sattar issued these remarks while hearing a kidnapping case filed by an uncle of a 16-year-old girl in January this year, who had stated that his niece had left her home and later called her mother and told her that she had gotten married to a man named Asim.
The girl had denied being kidnapped and claimed that she married of her own free will. She was taken into custody and was shifted to a shelter home after her ossification test declared her to be 15 to 16 years of age.
The case was transferred to a session court for a trial by the judicial magistrate under sections 365-B (kidnapping, abducting or inducting woman to compel for marriage etc), 375-V (rape with or without her consent when she is under sixteen years of age) and 376-III (punishment for rape with a minor or a person with mental or physical disability) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with sections 2, 4 and 5 of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013.
The judge maintained that the girl was not of legal age to give consent to marriage, and engaging a child under the guise of marriage in sexual conduct falls within the definition of sexual abuse, The News reported.
