Rawadari Tehreek asks the Federal Constitutional Court to revisit its ruling on 13-year-old Maria Shahbaz of Lahore and calls for a law against forced conversion.
LAHORE: A Lahore-based interfaith rights group has called for the annulment of three alleged underage marriages involving Christian and Hindu girls. It asked the Federal Constitutional Court to review its ruling in the case of Maria Shahbaz, a 13-year-old Christian girl from Lahore.
Speaking at the Lahore Press Club on November 4, Rawadari Tehreek Pakistan chairman Samson Salamat said child marriage laws must be enforced in practice, not left on paper, and that the state must protect every child regardless of caste, colour, religion or social status.
The families of all three girls allege abduction, forced religious conversion and underage marriage. Joint Action Committee convener Irfan Mufti, Rah-e-Nijat Ministry executive director Safdar Chaudhry, Hindu advocate Kheta Ram, goodwill ambassador Sabiha Malik and organiser Laiba Imran also spoke, and Maria Shahbaz’s parents attended.
Christian Teenager Maria Shahbaz
Maria’s family says she was abducted in Lahore in July 2025, converted and married to Shehryar Ahmad. Her father, Shahbaz Masih, sought her recovery, arguing she was a minor held under a void marriage. A sessions court and the Lahore High Court dismissed his petitions. On March 25, 2026, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the marriage and left her in her husband’s custody.
The ruling drew protests from church leaders and rights groups. Lahore’s Catholic Archbishop Khalid Rehmat called it “profoundly disturbing”, and the European Parliament passed a resolution on the case in July. The court has since admitted a review petition filed by the family, according to church-linked media. Rawadari Tehreek wants that review to annul the marriage and conversion, and wants those involved arrested.
Kalpana Meghwar and Bandiya Kumari
According to her family, Kalpana Meghwar, 13, was taken from Umerkot in Sindh on October 18, 2026, and converted and married at the Bharchundi Sharif shrine near Daharki. The group says NADRA and school records give her date of birth as March 7, 2013, but later documents show her as an adult. It called for an impartial investigation.
Bandiya Kumari, 14, is still missing. Her family alleges she was abducted from Sibi in Balochistan and taken to Sindh, where she was converted and married. The case has been raised in the Balochistan Assembly and the Senate’s minorities caucus, but there has been no confirmation of where she is or whether she is safe. The group urged the Sindh and Balochistan governments to work together to recover her.
Police and the other parties have not publicly commented.
Rawadari Tehreek demands
The group’s demands include:
– Annulment of all underage marriages through the competent courts, with protection and rehabilitation for the girls;
– An impartial investigation of the managers of the Bharchundi Sharif shrine, including Mian Mithu, and of those accused of helping them, with arrests if wrongdoing is found;
– Action against police and officials responsible for negligence or delay;
– An expert commission to review gaps in enforcement and report publicly;
– A law criminalising forced religious conversion.
Mian Abdul Haq, known as Mian Mithu, has in the past denied that conversions at the shrine are forced, saying the girls convert of their own will.
Legal Loopholes and Weak Protection for Minority Girls
Pakistan’s laws are uneven. Sindh’s Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013 sets 18 as the minimum age for both sexes, but Punjab’s 2015 amendment kept 16 for girls. In Punjab, the government has introduced new rules for nikah registrars to curb child marriage, and the Lahore High Court has ordered a fresh probe in a Lahore child marriage case.
Courts have sometimes treated a girl’s statement that she converted and married freely, or medical evidence of puberty, as decisive, even when official documents say she is a minor. Rights groups say this is the main loophole. A federal bill to criminalise forced conversion was rejected by a parliamentary committee in 2021, with opponents arguing that it could restrict voluntary conversions.
Rights groups say most victims are poor girls from Hindu and Christian families in Sindh and Punjab, and that delays by police and courts often leave them with their alleged abductors for months.
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