MIRPUR (AJK)            -           The AJK Population Welfare Department is going to host a grand seminar to ponder over devising laws to discourage the trend of under-aged marriages.

The AJK Population Welfare Department is organising the seminar titled: “Proposal for Legislation of Child Marriages Restraint Act in AJK,” with the coordination and support of the United National Population Fund (UNFPA) and Population Program Wing of the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination of the Government of Pakistan, at the capital city of Muzaffarabad on Monday (today), it was officially said.

“AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan will inaugurate the grand event to be attended among others by AJK Minister for Population Welfare Dr Mustafa Bashir, experts and lawmakers from AJK and all the four provinces of the country including the federal capital to share their valuable inputs on the topic,” said Raja Muhammad Razzaque, Secretary AJK Population Welfare Department.

Unveiling the salient features of the scheduled seminar, Raja Razzaque told this Correspondent  here on Saturday that besides the chair - AJK PM Raja Farooq Haider Khan and Population Welfare Minister Dr Mustafa Bashir, key speakers including Dr Jamil Ahmed Chaudhry, Representative of UNFPA, Dr Shahid Hanif, Director General Population Program Wing of the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination; Dr Nosheena Shabirm Consultant Gynaecologist CMH Muzaffarabad; Irshad Ahmed Qureshi, Secretary Law, Justice, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights; Dr Muhammad Idrees Abbasi, Secretary to the AJK President will respectively speak on their respective topics including medical problems caused by early marriages, proposed legislation of ‘Early-age Marriages Restraint Act in AJK’, ‘Family Planning in the Perspective of International Law’ and the identical issues.

Earlier, the AJK Population Welfare Secretary will present an overview of the recommendations of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) on the population planning to ensure the planning for maintaining the due volume of the population in the country including AJK friendly to the state in view of the prevailing the rapid population growth.