The European Parliament has tabled a resolution condemning the abduction, forced conversion and child marriage of Maria Shahbaz and calling on Pakistan to protect girls from religious minorities. The resolution, scheduled for debate on 7 July 2026, demands an urgent, independent, child-sensitive judicial review of the case and urges Pakistan to investigate and prosecute abduction, forced conversion, child marriage, trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors, especially involving Christian, Hindu and other minorities. It also calls for targeted protection for minority girls and stresses that closer EU-Pakistan relations must be matched by progress on human rights, rule of law, women’s and children’s rights, and minority protection.
The case concerns Maria Shahbaz, who was abducted at age 13, forced to convert to Islam and marry. On 25 March 2026, Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court upheld the conversion and marriage, ordering her to stay with her abductor. The resolution condemns this ruling and demands that Maria Shahbaz be ensured safety, access to her family, independent legal representation, and protection from coercion pending review. It also demands that courts do not validate marriages or conversions involving minors or persons lacking free and informed consent.
The resolution welcomes recent provincial legislation raising the minimum marriage age to 18 and the National Framework to End Child Marriage, urging full implementation. It condemns enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, harassment of journalists and human rights defenders, and misuse of anti-terrorism, blasphemy and cybercrime laws. The text calls on the EU, the European External Action Service and Member States to raise the case and broader patterns in EU-Pakistan human rights dialogue, Strategic Dialogue and GSP+ monitoring.
The resolution was tabled by Bernard Guetta and others on behalf of the Renew Group. It is a motion for resolution to be debated in plenary, not yet adopted as Parliament’s position. If adopted, it would become Parliament’s stance, but carries no binding force on Pakistan or the EU institutions. The resolution links closer EU-Pakistan relations to concrete human rights progress, signalling that trade preferences under GSP+ could be affected if Pakistan fails to address these issues.