Summary CII terms Women Protection Bill against Islam, Constitution
Dunya News Report (Humaira Sajid)
ISLAMABAD - The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has termed Women Protection Bill passed by the Punjab Assembly against the Islamic teachings and the constitution.
While addressing the media, the CII Chairperson Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani said that Article 6 of the Constitution, which deals with treason, could be applied against the Punjab Assembly for approving a bill without the council’s consent.
After the first of a two-day CII meeting, Maulana Sherani claimed: “Pakistan was established on the basis of the two nation theory and Islam is the religion of the country, and the council is a constitutional body to ensure that all the laws are formulated in accordance [with] Shariah.”
According to sources, the council has obtained an English version of the Women Protection Bill 2015 however; they have decided to seek a translated copy of the bill from the Punjab Assembly in order to review it thoroughly since not all individuals of the council are proficient of the English language. This however, raises the question of how the council announced Women Protection Bill as un-Islamic and hoisted its objection over certain articles of the bill.
The council has also examined a draft of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Domestic Violence Bill, which Maulana Sherani said contained some ‘inappropriate’ clauses.
“...There are some clauses that are not in compliance with Shariah norms and some were against additional laws,” he said. He added that council members will discuss the KP bill again.
The Chancellor of Jamia Binoria International, Mufti Naeem recorded a video message as a backlash to Women Protection Bill against Violence, for all imbeciles out there to correct their “sinful ways”. He criticized Nawaz Sharif for taking small issues seriously and called it as aping the West for these kind of laws are against ‘our culture and Islam.’
While Mufti Naeem strongly opposed the bill and expressed his concerns over it calling it a ‘tragedy’, he stated the rate of divorce is high in the West because women have all the power. They can even call the police at 2 am in the night with a complaint, he said expressing his distress.
The Quran, on the other hand, clearly spells out no less than sixteen fundamental rights of individuals in gender-neutral language, as corroborated by scholars such as Maudoodi. Islam s mandate of equality between women and men necessitates that all forms of violence against women be eradicated, for so long as women suffer abuses, women cannot achieve their full potential as free and equal members of the society.
According to the statistics of violence against women contained in a report to parliament by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human rights, there were 860 ‘honor’ killings (mostly women), 481 incidents of domestic violence, 90 cases of acid burning, 344 cases of rape/gang rape and 268 incidents of sexual assault/harassment. That is just the official toll where more than half of the abuse cases are unreported.
In the words of Sharmeen Chinoy, “If people don’t go to jail for honor killing, how will they know it’s a crime?” This basic and simple reasoning pretty much applies to everything. If one continues to use violence, even murder against another to settle scores or to make a point, and is never sent to jail, he and everyone else thinks that such acts are acceptable in the society. Thus, it seems justified that structures are set for punishing the guilty and placed in an accurate place which is within easy reach and allows women to file complaints without any fear of potential negative social consequences for themselves or their children.
