Overview

• Justice Muhammad Azam Khan ruled that the union is not void under Islamic law even as the Islamabad Child Restraint Marriage Act 2025 criminalises such marriages without expressly invalidating them.
• The court allowed Madiha Bibi to reside with petitioner Muhammad Riaz after she told the judge she married by choice and did not want to return to her parents.
• Records conflicted on her age, with the Nikah Nama listing her as about 18 and NADRA showing a September 2009 birth that places her at 15.
• Courts were ordered to engage Child Protection Officers for welfare assessments before rulings on minors, including checks on puberty, voluntariness, bone-age, socio-economic background and the adult party’s age differential.
• Authorities were told to bar registrars from solemnising underage unions, revoke licenses and pursue prosecutions for violations, integrate NADRA birth data for age verification, harmonise conflicting age definitions across statutes and run public awareness campaigns.