In May 2025, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari signed into law a long-awaited amendment raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 for both girls and boys within the Islamabad Capital Territory. While limited in geographical scope, this legal step has reignited a region-wide debate over child marriage, a practice that continues to thrive in many parts of India and Pakistan, despite decades of legal reform and mounting social resistance.

In South Asia, particularly in India and Pakistan, the issue of child marriage remains critical, where an intersection of centuries-old practices with evolving legal frameworks can be seen. Both states have made significant efforts on the legislative front to curb this practice by setting a minimum age for marriage and strengthening their enforcement mechanisms over the past decades. Therefore, it is pertinent to comprehend these legal developments to appreciate the fight against this menace in the region.

The tragic Phulmoni Dasi case (1890) played a pivotal role in drawing legislative attention to the dangers of early marriage. Phulmoni, a 10-year-old girl, died due to injuries sustained from forced intercourse with her significantly older husband. The case triggered widespread public anger in British India, leading to the Age of Consent Act, 1891. This act did not ban child marriage, but it criminalized sexual relations with those under 12 years old. It can be regarded as a groundbreaking step for that time, but this law permitted the continuation of child marriage with only a condition of restriction of intercourse before the age of 12, leaving a glaring loophole. (Lamb, 2000)

The first substantive law directly aimed at restraining child marriage came with the Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA), 1929. This Act set the minimum age of marriage at 14 for girls and 18 for boys and prescribed penal sanctions to deter the practice. It was applicable throughout British India and focused on everyone involved in solemnizing such unions, including parents and priests. However, this law did not invalidate child marriage, nor did it empower the girls to annul such........

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