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‘CII’s latest pronouncements promoting extremists’ agenda’
ISLAMABAD: The latest pronouncement of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has been condemned as an unacceptable attempt to foist the obscurantist agenda of the militants on the people of Pakistan in the name of religion.
“The call for the restoration of child marriages and the declaration that requiring a man to seek written permission from his wife before contracting a second marriage as ‘un-Islamic’ the council has exposed itself to the charge that it is purveying ‘medieval nonsense at public expense’,” said PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar in a statement on Wednesday.
He said that the council had already reviewed all the laws and according to its special report in 2008, it had declared that over 90% of the laws, including the ones relating to the child marriages and family laws, were not in conflict with Islam. “How the council can now reverse its report which lay in the domain of the parliament?” he asked.
The latest assertion made by the present council, ignoring its 2008 report is an echo of the Taliban’s viewpoint and amounts to paving the way for the prevalence of extremists’ agendas. The council has become an institution for purveying medieval and regressive views, he said.
Giving examples Senator Babar said that in May last it declared that DNA test results were not acceptable as primary evidence in cases of rape. Making this declaration the council ignored that DNA test was admissible as evidence in courts across the world and DNA tests and preservation of DNA samples in rape cases had been made mandatory in Pakistan in the light of a recent Supreme Court verdict, he said.
In September last the council first approved the draft of a resolution recommending amending the blasphemy law proposing punishment to those levelling false allegations but soon the hardliners joined hands and struck down the proposed resolution.
Earlier the council rejected a draft bill for establishing homes for the elderly on the ground that the idea was against the norms and traditions of society and also rejected the Women Protection Bill, 2006, saying it was contrary to the sprit of Quran and Sharia, he said.
Recommendations such as these demonstrate how dangerously out of touch with the times the CII is today and how perilously it is purveying the extremists’ agenda, he said. Such regressive declarations will only strengthen voices calling for disbanding the council itself.
He said that the council had submitted its final report to the Parliament in 1997 as required in the 1973 Constitution. It is also pertinent to raise questions about the legality of its declarations after having completed the task assigned to it under the constitution and after having submitted its report.
Although the council is an advisory body, due to the dictatorial baggage since the ‘80s, its pronouncements tend to acquire an air of moral authority and that is what makes its pronouncements not only confusing but also disturbing, he said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk