WEB DESK: Federal Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry lashed out at renowned Karachi-based religious scholar, Mufti Tariq Masood, for his comments regarding underage marriage.
In a video shared by the minister, the scholar could be heard offering his audience that he would arrange a fourth marriage with a 16-year-old virgin girl for them if they get to marry three widows or divorcees.
This was in contrast to the Islamic beliefs that allow a man to have four wives at once.
However, the religious scholar jested that ” I will get you two girls aged eight-years each or four aged four-years each if a 16-year-old cannot be found”.
Chaudhry tweeted that ‘because of the mullahs (religious preachers), the society has sunk into a terrible social crisis.
ملاؤں کی وجہ سے ہمارا معاشرہ ایک خوفناک معاشرتی بحران میں دھنس چکا ہے،سینکڑوں لوگ ان کی جاھلانہ گفتگو سنتےاور متاثر ہوتے ہیں،ریاست خاموش تماشائ کا کردار ادا کرتی آ رہی ہے حالت یہ ہےکہ سعودی عرب ایران جیسے ممالک کم عمر بچیوں سے شادی ہر ہابندی عائد کر چکے ہماری اسمبلی نہیں کرسکی https://t.co/YtjgtbzIsz
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) November 14, 2020
Hundreds of people listen to their ignorant talks and get influenced’, he said lampooning the promotion of such behavior.
The minister expressed that countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia have banned underage marriages but Pakistan has not been able to legislate against it thus far.
The minister certainly deserves appreciation for raising this issue highlighting the insensitive course that the preacher, who has over 1.13 million Youtube subscribers, had resorted to during his tutorial.
Even said in a joking manner, the dissemination of such thoughts can possibly trigger child abuse incidents in the country which are recently on the rise with cases reported in Kasur, Peshawar, and different parts of the country.
The participants laughing over such an ‘insensitive joke’ must have thought about women in their families.