Three-Year-Old Girl at Centre of Child Marriage Case in Pakistan’s Balochistan
A disturbing child-marriage case from Pakistan’s Balochistan province has triggered widespread public outrage after police alleged that a three-year-old girl in Chaman was arranged to be married to a 60-year-old man in exchange for Rs 2.5 million, roughly $9,000. The case emerged in the border city of Chaman, near Afghanistan, and prompted authorities to intervene after details of the arrangement became public. Police arrested the girl’s father, Abdul Baqi, while the alleged groom, identified as Salah Uddin, remains wanted.
According to police reports, the arrangement involved walwar, a Pashtun practice in which the groom or his family pays money to the bride’s family. Authorities intervened before the full payment was made, meaning the proposed marriage had not taken effect in practice. The three-year-old girl and her mother were subsequently placed under police protection while investigators pursued the case.
The investigation has taken a more serious turn because of the death of the girl’s older sister, Shukria Bibi. Police have said that Baqi had previously arranged Shukria’s marriage when she was 13 to Kamran, the son of Salah Uddin, reportedly for Rs 1.5 million under the same walwar practice. Shukria was later found dead in the Kuchlak area near Quetta, and police arrested Kamran on suspicion of her killing. Investigators are examining whether disputes surrounding the family’s marriage arrangements were connected to her death.
The case has also raised questions about the continued use of traditional dispute-settlement practices involving minors in parts of Pakistan. Under practices such as vani and swara, girls have reportedly been used in forced marriage arrangements to settle family or tribal disputes. Pakistan’s own courts and media have repeatedly highlighted the problem, while police have taken action in several recent cases.
In May 2025, police in Dera Ismail Khan arrested five people, including a cleric and members of a local panchayat, after an eight-year-old girl was allegedly married to a 12-year-old boy under vani. Police said the arrangement had been ordered by a council of elders following an earlier dispute involving allegations of sexual assault.
Another case in Dera Ismail Khan in March 2025 involved an 11-year-old girl who was allegedly ordered to be given in vani by a local panchayat. According to police reports, the girl’s father, a poor barber, had allegedly been abducted and pressured by influential local men before being forced to agree to the arrangement. Police said he had also been made to pay Rs 700,000. He later died after consuming poisonous pills, while authorities recovered his daughter and arrested suspects.
Such cases have repeatedly drawn attention to the gap between formal law and practices that continue in some communities. In a 2025 editorial, Dawn noted that vani has been prohibited under Pakistani law, yet out-of-court settlements and local tribal councils continue to play a role in some disputes.
The scale of child marriage in Pakistan has also been highlighted by UNICEF. According to figures reported by Dawn in September 2025, Pakistan was home to more than 19 million women who had been married as children, with nearly one in six young women married before turning 18 and around 4.8 million married before the age of 15. The figures underline the broader challenge facing efforts to prevent early and forced marriage.
Balochistan has strengthened its legal framework in recent years. The Balochistan Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2025, sets 18 as the minimum marriage age and provides criminal penalties for those who arrange, facilitate or conduct child marriages. The Chaman case is therefore being investigated against a legal backdrop that formally prohibits such arrangements.
The case involving the three-year-old girl remains under investigation, particularly regarding the alleged marriage arrangement, the whereabouts of Salah Uddin and the circumstances surrounding Shukria Bibi’s death. What has emerged so far has nevertheless renewed scrutiny of child marriage, financial arrangements surrounding marriage and the continued influence of informal dispute-resolution practices in parts of Pakistan.
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