Karachi [Pakistan], March 15 : A sessions court sentenced a man to two years in the custody of a probation officer for marrying an underage girl, Dawn reported. 43-year-old Muhammad Aslam was found guilty of marrying a 15-year-old girl under Section 3 of the Sindh Child Restraint Marriage Act by Additional District and Sessions Judge (West) Irshad Hussain. The convict would stay at his home with his wife, the same underage girl, under the supervision of the probation officer. Noting the decision not to send him to jail, the judge stated that it would be more appropriate to hand over him to the probation officer because the convict was a first-time offender and the sole breadwinner of his wife and infant daughter.
"Sending him in jail to serve out the sentence will not benefit him to reform his life and mend his ways," the judge said. During the trial, the convict pleaded guilty and threw himself at the mercy of the court, as reported by Dawn. As per the prosecution, the father of an underage girl lodged a complaint with the police in May 2022, alleging that Aslam had abducted his daughter from their neighbourhood with the intent of committing rape or forcibly marrying her. Concurrently, the underage girl and her husband approached a judicial magistrate to provide her statement, affirming that she had voluntarily left her father's home and wished to enter into a 'court marriage' with Aslam. Upon recording her statement, the court dismissed the First Information Report (FIR).
Subsequently, the complainant appealed to the Sindh High Court, which ordered a medical examination to ascertain the girl's age. The medical report confirmed that she was 15 years old when she left her residence. Consequently, the court included provisions of the Child Marriage Restraint Act and declared Arif Hussain, Aman Gul, and Nikah Khawan Moulvi Karamat as proclaimed offenders. During the questioning, the girl asserted that she was 19 years old at the time of the marriage. She refuted the allegations of abduction by her husband and maintained that she had willingly consented to the marriage. She denied having filed a Khula application in court and stated that her husband was responsibly caring for her and their daughter. Furthermore, she admitted to being unaware of the legal prohibition against marriages involving underage individuals, Dawn reported.
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