Bill seeking to raise Christians’ marriage age to 18 submitted to Punjab Assembly panel

LAHORE: In a historic move to dismantle colonial-era legal barriers, a bill was submitted in the Punjab Assembly’s Standing Committee on Minority Affairs on Thursday, seeking a raise in the minimum marriage age of Christians to 18.

This bill seeks to resolve decades of hurdles in documentation that have left many Christian marriages unrecognised by union councils and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

The proposed ‘Christian Marriage Act Bill, 2026’ was submitted as a private member bill by Falbus Christopher, the chairman of the Standing Committee on Minority Affairs.

Under the bill, the age of marriage — previously set at 16 years for boys and 13 years for girls — will be standardised to 18 years. Furthermore, the bill mandates that both the bride and groom must be Christian for the marriage to be solemnised under this specific act, shifting from the current law, which only requires one party to be of the Christian faith.

One of the most significant practical changes involved the formal integration of Christian marriage certificates into the official government database. Under the proposed bill, for the first time, union councils and Nadra will be legally bound to record these marriages, a process that was previously impossible under the outdated 1872 regulations.

This will grant Christian couples easier access to legal protections, inheritance rights, and official identification documents that were once mired in bureaucratic limbo.

The bill also removed archaic social restrictions, such as the ban on conducting wedding ceremonies after 6pm, allowing families the freedom to celebrate at any time or day.

In a move toward greater religious inclusivity, the authority to perform marriages has been expanded beyond the Catholic and Church of England denominations. The bill says that any pastor from a government-registered church who graduated from a recognised theological seminary will be authorised to solemnise vows.

Additionally, the bill clarifies the definition of marriage as a union specifically between a man and a woman, replacing the vague “two persons” terminology used in the British-era text.