Bill seeks to rewrite colonial-era Christian marriage law in Pakistan’s Punjab province

A Christian lawmaker in Pakistan’s Punjab province has introduced a bill to raise the minimum legal age of marriage for Christian girls and boys to 18, in a move aimed at overhauling the 153-year-old colonial-era Christian Marriage Act of 1872.

At the federal level, Pakistan’s National Assembly passed the Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act, 2024, on July 10 last year, raising the legal marriage age to 18. However, the law applies only to the Islamabad Capital Territory, as legislative authority over minority affairs was devolved to provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, requiring provincial legislatures to enact their own reforms.

The proposed “Christian Marriage Act Bill, 2026” was tabled in the Punjab Assembly by Falbous Christopher, a provincial legislator and chairman of the Standing Committee on Minority Affairs, as a private member’s bill.

If enacted, the legislation would set the minimum marriage age at 18 for both men and women, replacing the existing thresholds of 16 for boys and 13 for girls under the current law. It also requires both parties to be Christian for a marriage to be solemnized under the act, revising the existing provision that allows unions where only one party professes the Christian faith.

The bill proposes a range of administrative reforms, including the formal registration of Christian marriages within official state systems. For the first time, union councils and the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) would be legally mandated to register such marriages, a step expected to improve access to legal protections, inheritance rights and identity documentation for Christian couples.

It also removes outdated restrictions—such as the prohibition on conducting wedding ceremonies after 6 p.m.—and expands the pool of authorized officiants. Under the proposed changes, any pastor affiliated with a government-registered church and holding a recognized theological qualification would be permitted to solemnize marriages, broadening authority beyond the historically recognized Catholic and Anglican denominations.

The draft further clarifies the legal definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, replacing the more ambiguous “two persons” phrasing in the original statute.

The initiative comes amid wider efforts to reform Christian personal laws in Pakistan.

On April 7, the Punjab government constituted a 37-member technical committee under its Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Department to review gaps in family and inheritance laws affecting Christians, with particular emphasis on safeguarding women and minors.

Parallel discussions are underway in Sindh province, where a three-member committee has been formed to examine potential amendments to the Christian Marriage Act of 1872 and the Divorce Act of 1869. During a recent meeting chaired by provincial adviser Giyanchand Essarani, participants highlighted discrepancies between outdated personal laws and current statutory standards, including the low minimum age of marriage.

Christian leaders and lawmakers in Punjab have welcomed the bill, describing it as a long-overdue step toward aligning personal laws with contemporary human rights standards.

Ejaz Alam Augustine, a former provincial minister and current member of the Punjab Assembly, said the existing legal framework had failed to keep pace with present-day realities.

“These colonial-era laws were not designed to address the needs and vulnerabilities of today’s Christian community,” Augustine said. “In practice, they have created gaps that leave families, particularly women and young girls, exposed to legal uncertainty and, in some cases, exploitation. Reform is essential to ensure equal protection, dignity and access to justice.”

He said momentum for reform had intensified following recent court rulings involving underage Christian girls.

“Civil society has long called for change, but recent judgments have brought a new sense of urgency,” he said. “Provisions allowing marriages where only one party is Christian have been invoked in court in ways that complicate efforts by families to challenge the marriages of minor girls.”

Advocates have also raised concerns about the Christian divorce framework, noting that it places disproportionate burdens on women, offers limited safeguards against domestic abuse and suffers from weak enforcement of maintenance and alimony provisions.

Legal ambiguity persists in areas such as child custody, where courts often rely on general guardianship laws due to the absence of a comprehensive, codified family law for Christians.

In a significant ruling on March 7, the Lahore High Court held that “desertion” can constitute valid grounds for the dissolution of a Christian marriage if a couple has lived separately for at least two years, setting aside earlier lower court decisions that had dismissed such claims, as previously reported by Christian Daily International.

The Christian Divorce Act of 1869 provides limited grounds for men seeking divorce and requires husbands to prove adultery by their wives to obtain dissolution. It also mandates that the alleged adulterer be named as a co-respondent—procedural requirements that have historically made it difficult to pursue divorce and have led to cases being dismissed on technical grounds.

Human rights advocates and Christian leaders have long criticized these provisions as outdated and discriminatory, arguing that they effectively force couples to level damaging allegations of adultery in order to end broken marriages.

Katherine Sapna, executive director of the Christians’ True Spirit legal aid organization, said the reform process could open space for broader intra-community dialogue.

“This presents an important opportunity for Christian denominations to engage on sensitive but pressing issues,” Sapna said. “Marriage, divorce and remarriage remain among the most common sources of dispute within families, and a clearer, more coherent legal framework could help address longstanding pastoral and social challenges.”