Women’s Protection Bill passed by the National Assembly

ISLAMABAD: The draft of the Women’s Protection Bill passed by the National Assembly was not referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), said its Chairman Dr Khalid Masud, while addressing a press conference here on Thursday.The CII chief, however, said it was the government’s discretion to refer a draft of any bill to the council or not before going for legislation.When asked that President Gen Musharraf had also thanked the CII for its role in preparing the draft of the bill, he said that the president referred to some members of the CII and not the council as an organisation. “The bill does not contain the council’s recommendations,” he said, and added that recommendations of the some council members had been included in the bill, and according to them, the bill was not against the injunctions of the Holy Qur’aan and Sunnah.

Dr Khalid Masud said although the CII enjoys constitutional status, but it acts as an advisory body. He said the draft of the bill was not sent to the council for its recommendations, however, the council would give its opinion after going through it in detail. He did not give any timeframe for finalisation of the opinion of the council.
Responding to a question, he said parliament enjoys the power to make any legislation, and an Ulema committee could not be preferred on it. He added that the CII had demanded that the Hudood Ordinance required complete repeal, as partial amendment to the ordinance would not serve the purpose. “The Hudood laws are very controversial, and awareness is required on these laws so that any confusion in this regard could be removed.”

In this connection, he said, the CII also organised an international seminar on the Hudood laws and prepared a report in the light of proceedings of the seminar. “We also sought opinions of the Ulema, lawyers, police official and people belonging to other segment of society, and the process still continues,” he said.He said the CII, so far, had prepared 73 reports containing 3,000 recommendations; some of those were enacted in the law by the government. However, he said during Gen Ziaul Haq tenure when the council was given more importance, around 100 recommendations suggested by it were given the shape of law.

Source: The News

Date:11/17/2006