Police in Peshawar, Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have arrested a 72-year-old man for attempting to marry a 12-year-old girl, according to local newspaper Express Tribune.

Authorities intervened before the nikaah could take place. The girl’s father, Alam Syed, is accused of agreeing to sell his daughter to 72-year-old groom Habib Khan for 500,000 Pakistani rupees.

Habib Khan was arrested, but the girl’s father managed to escape.

A case has been registered against the 72-year-old man and the girl’s father under the Child Marriage Restraint Act. The nikaah registrar involved in the arrangement has also been arrested.

Pakistan has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with an estimated 30 percent of girls married before the age of 18. The legal age for marriage is 16, but enforcement remains a challenge.

The British-era Child Marriage Restraint Act sets a minimum age for marriage but provides for a maximum imprisonment of one month and a fine of Rs 1,000, which is considered inadequate to deter offenders.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province where the attempted marriage took place, is one of two provinces that have not enacted stronger laws to tackle the problem of child marriage.

According to UNICEF, 18.9 million girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 18, and 4.6 million girls are married before the age of 16.