A shocking 96.6 percent of all marriages between Pakistani nationals and UK spouses take place purely to obtain British citizenship, a new survey in Islamabad has revealed.

The “Baseline Survey on Forced Marriages,” conducted by the Pakistan-based “Struggle for Change” group in collaboration with the British High Commission, found that only 3.4 percent of Pakistani children are consulted before marriage and that 96.6 percent of marriages take place “mainly to attain foreign nationality or helping hand abroad.”

The target areas for the survey were Mirpur, Bhimber and Kotli where the concentration of dual nationals is high and incidents of forced marriages are largely reported, said the report.

Among 870 individuals interviewed during the survey, 61.9 percent respondents were British nationals and 38.08 percent were Pakistani nationals who visited the UK many times.

The study also revealed that only 7.9 percent among dual nationals had an education up to post-graduation level and 3.6 percent had a UK based education — making a mockery of Government claims that only “skilled immigrants” are allowed into Britain.

Around 51.6 percent of respondents said that forced marriages “may lead to torture and violence” and 52.8 percent said that mostly women are forced-marriage victims as “they cannot dare to oppose and they had no other option but to surrender.”

The survey also found that in at least 50 percent of cases, the community was “indifferent” to the forced marriage concept, calling it a “private matter.”

Albert David, head of Consular Section of the British High Commission in Islamabad, said Forced Marriage Units (FMUs) had offices all over the world providing assistance to potential victims of forced marriages — all paid for, of course, by the British taxpayer.