Girl, 5, to be charged after marrying 22-year-old man
A five-year-old girl has reportedly been forced into a marriage with a 22-year-old man in Pakistan.
Police learned of the ceremony in the village of Raman Shar near Dakhan Town but were unable to arrive in time to stop the marriage from going ahead.
The groom and his father were quickly arrested and are set to be prosecuted under the Child Marriages Restraint Act.
In a bitter twist, the five-year-old bride and her mother will also be charged for breaching the female minimum marriageable age of 16 years old.
Those found guilty of entering into, or facilitating, a child marriage can be sentenced to rigorous punishment for up to three years.
Girls not Brides, a global partnership of 700 civil society organisations committed to ending child marriage, said 21 per cent of Pakistani women are married by the age of 18.
The Pakistani National Assembly rejected a proposal to raise the minimum marriageable age for females to 18, in line with that for males.
Newsbreak - July 28
