Pakistan’s parliament has passed the much-delayed Hindu Marriage Bill to enable the country’s minority Hindu community to register their marriages. The first ever national law was passed on Monday after the draft was presented in the lower house or National Assembly by minister for human rights Kamran Micheal. The bill sets the minimum age for marriage for Hindus at 18.
The bill will now have to get approval in the country’s upper house, the Senate. The lack of a legal mechanism to recognise Hindu marriages in Pakistan since the country’s creation in 1947 has led to rampant discrimination against nearly two million Hindu population.