A Lahore High Court ruling has been welcomed by Christian leaders and lawyers after the court said a minor’s consent does not give an adult a legal right to live with her in a marital relationship.
The judgment is being viewed as an important development for the protection of girls from child marriage, with Christian advocates saying it could have particular significance for underage girls from religious minority communities who are allegedly abducted, converted and married against their will.
The 11-page judgment, issued on Monday in the case of Muslim minor Hina Aslam, found that living in a marital relationship with a girl under 18 can amount to child abuse, even where the child is said to have consented. Justice Munawar Iqbal Duggal said the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2026 had changed the legal position on child marriage and must now be applied accordingly.
Hina was around 15 years and two months old when the alleged marriage took place, according to court records. Her father, Muhammad Aslam, brought the petition, while records from Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) gave her date of birth as 1 March 2011.
Rather than immediately handing Hina into the custody of either side, the court placed her under the protection of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau. The judge also ordered police to investigate allegations that she had been married while underage and that a fraudulent marriage certificate had been issued.
The judgment said a marital relationship involving a minor following a child marriage can constitute child abuse, carrying a possible prison sentence of five to seven years. The offence can also attract a fine of at least 1 million Pakistani rupees, equivalent to about $3,605.
The court further ordered that Hina could not leave with the man who claimed to be her husband. Any meetings with her parents or the alleged husband were to take place under supervision. Permanent custody will be determined by the Lahore Guardian Court.
Justice Duggal also directed the station house officer at B-Division Police Station in Kasur District, Punjab Province, to investigate the allegations and register a case if the evidence established an offence. The court rejected the police argument that they were unable to investigate the alleged underage marriage.
It added that a separate First Information Report (FIR) could be registered if the investigation established an offence other than the alleged kidnapping.
Ejaz Alam Augustine, a Christian member of the Punjab Assembly, welcomed the ruling, particularly the court’s decision to place the child’s welfare at the centre of the case. He said the judgment could have wider implications for cases involving underage girls from minority communities, including Christians and Hindus.
Augustine had previously proposed an amendment to Punjab’s child marriage legislation requiring the “best interests of the child” to be a primary consideration in matters including investigations, bail, sentencing and custody. The Punjab Assembly approved the amendment when it passed the bill on 27 April.
The provision also says that a child involved in a marriage cannot be treated as an offender. It states that a minor’s purported consent, especially where coercion or abduction is alleged, should not determine decisions about the child’s protection or custody.
Augustine said he hoped police and lower courts would apply the Lahore High Court’s interpretation consistently. He argued that effective enforcement could help prevent underage girls from being exploited through claims involving conversion and marriage.
Supreme Court attorney Muhammad Saqib Jillani, who represents the family of 13-year-old Christian Maria Shahbaz in a prominent child marriage case before the Federal Constitutional Court, also described the ruling as significant.
Jillani said the Lahore High Court had distinguished Hina’s case from a 3 February Federal Constitutional Court judgment that upheld Maria Shahbaz’s marriage to 30-year-old Shehryar Ahmad. He noted that Punjab’s new child marriage law came into force after the Federal Constitutional Court ruling and said this had altered the legal position.
Katherine Sapna of the Christians’ True Spirit paralegal organisation welcomed the judgment but warned that its practical effect would depend on how police and lower courts handle similar cases involving minority girls.
She said the organisation had observed what it described as bias by police and subordinate courts in cases involving underage Christian girls who are allegedly converted and married to men accused of abducting them. She stressed that legal protections for children should apply without religious discrimination.
Rights organisations have for years raised concerns about alleged abductions, forced religious conversions and forced marriages involving Christian and other religious minority girls and women in Pakistan.
A report called “Stolen Girls”, presented by advocacy organisation Jubilee Campaign at the European Parliament on 14 July, documented 210 cases involving alleged abduction, forced religious conversion, child marriage and sexual violence against Christian and other minority girls between 2019 and 2025.
According to the report, 186 of the cases, or 88.6 per cent, occurred in Punjab Province, while 22 cases, or 10.5 per cent, were recorded in Sindh Province and two, or about 1 per cent, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
More than 83 per cent of the victims were under 18. The report identified 134 victims aged between 14 and 17, 41 who were younger than 14 and 35 adults. It gave the average age of victims as 12.8 years, compared with 35.8 years for alleged perpetrators, with some cases involving an age difference of more than 30 years.
Jubilee Campaign's figures represent cases documented by the organisation and are not a comprehensive count of all alleged cases involving abduction, forced conversion or child marriage among religious minorities in Pakistan.
Pakistan was ranked eighth among 50 countries in Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, which identifies countries where Christians face severe persecution. Open Doors cited systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversion, bonded labour and gender-based abuses among the challenges facing Christians in the country.
The Lahore High Court ruling therefore comes amid wider concerns about the protection of children and religious minorities, while its impact on future cases will depend in part on how consistently police and lower courts enforce Punjab’s new child marriage legislation.
Based on reporting by Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
