Amidst the fête of a so-called HerStoric moment not only by Pakistani feminists but anyone with simple common sense, I am once again mentioning the unpopular questions I have been asking since 2003, long before this issue of legal age of marriage aligned with donor-driven priorities or became fashionable in policy circles. In chorus, a relapsing outbreak of moral panic is being orchestrated by self-appointed sentries of Islam and selectively spread "ethics" that almost always concern themselves with the conduct, corpora and choices of women and girls.

The decree raises the legal age of marriage to 18 for both boys and girls in the ICT and mandates strict punishment most notably for the nikkah-khawan who solemnises such unions. This may provide symbolic relief to rights-based stakeholders. What remains concealed is the country's continued inability to address the issue of adolescent sexuality, social vulnerability and child protection with depth and context. A daring detailed reevaluation reveals that Pakistan is celebrating a partial fix for a deeply complex problem.

As of now, only two regions, Sindh and Islamabad, have enacted laws clearly setting the minimum marriage age at 18. Sindh led the way in 2014 with the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act. In contrast, other four regions maintain to manage under the colonial-era Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929. Punjab could only amend the original 1929 Act in 2015, maintaining a minimum marriage age of 16 for girls. Meanwhile, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan continue to........

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