[DAWN] A day after the passage of a bill seeking to set minimum age for marriage at 18 in the Senate, a similar legislation was introduced in the National Assembly on Tuesday, but only after an intense discussion which exposed cracks within various parties on the issue.Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri referred the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2019 to the committee concerned after the house allowed its mover Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of the ruling Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is
Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) to table it with a majority 72-50 vote.
The National Assembly also witnessed introduction of 10 other bills, including two constitutional amendment bills seeking creation of a new Hazara
...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets...province, on the private member’s day.
Former president Asif Ali
Ten PercentZardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
, who came to the house after the Asr prayer break, was seen conversing with the PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique, who is currently under custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with a housing society scam and attending the session after issuance of his production order by the speaker. The two arch-rivals of the past remained busy discussing some important matter for some time without caring for the proceedings.
Earlier, a heated discussion took place on the child marriage bill which exposed a division even within the federal cabinet. Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan strongly opposed the bill and termed it un-Islamic, whereas Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari argued in support of it and asked the deputy speaker to refer it to the committee.
The opposition Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) was the only party whose members voted in support of the bill in unison as the members of the Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) also gave a divided vote.