Pak rights body condemns CII rulings over Muslim family laws

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) today condemned controversial rulings by a constitutional body over Muslim family laws and called upon the government to protect women's rights.
Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani, the chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, known as CII, has said Pakistani laws regarding second marriage of a man and prohibiting underage marriage were against religious principles.
The CII, which gives legal advice to the government on religious issues, has ruled that laws setting the minimum age of marriage are un-Islamic and said an adolescent of any age can be married on attaining puberty.
"Nikah of even minors can be solemnised but only with the consent of their guardians and rukhsati (consummation of marriage) can take place only after the minors attain puberty," it has said.

The HRCP said: "The edict aimed at giving parents/guardians a licence to give away little girls in marriage and freeing men of the need to secure the permission of their first wives before admitting second wives to their harems is nothing short of a vicious attack on women's and girls' fundamental rights."
The CII's recommendations are open to challenge not only on the ground of conflict with the constitution of Pakistan and universal human rights but also for being violative of the spirit of the religion, it said.
The government must not yield to the CII manoeuvre otherwise it will fail in its duty to protect the rights of women, and also undermine its own defences against extremists' assault on the state's democratic foundations, the HRCP said.