The majestic maulana heading our Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) pulled another plug out from our already patchy family safety net. In his ‘wisdom’ and self-acquired divine authority, he declared a provision in the country’s Family Laws, under which a Muslim male was required to seek permission from his wife for a second marriage, as against fiqh (legal principles). Our TV screens flashed the proceedings of the Council, where, surrounded by equally grim looking representatives of this un-evolved species, the ferocious mullah sat in his stony silence with a stern stare. Despite considerable effort it is hard to swallow people like him so brazenly ordering about our family lives without taking a shred of responsibility for the consequences. However, before this particular ruling, let us go into the genesis of the Council itself. Established as an advisory council in 1962 to silence mullah-led noise in the streets, it was redesignated the Council of Islamic Ideology by no less person than the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He too was temporising against the rising clamour by the mullahs against his glamorous liberalism. However, the CII started work in earnest under the great usurper, the late General Zia, who more than anything else needed legitimacy for his medieval rule. In Pakistan nothing works better than religion to deflect popular frustration and strengthen one’s grip over state power. Quite befittingly, mullahs have never been voted into power. Instead men like the late Bhutto and Zia were sycophantically doted upon for their ‘inspired conversion back to the true faith’ as they went on to use Islam to perpetuate their rule. In the subcontinent we have a sick weakness for ruthless rulers rebranded as Islamist visionaries, regardless of their phenomenal conceit and deceit. Our collective trait to be willingly cheated has a history. The Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb has been raised to the level of sainthood by enthusiastic historians, romantic writers and glib mullahs for supposedly sewing and selling cotton caps to run his kitchen — an unsubstantiated piece of fiction to create a prototype indigenous pious ruler in the long line of despotic Muslim Sultans and Kings of India. There could be nothing more ridiculous than this notion, partly because the expenses of an imperial kitchen could never be covered by a commercial cap-sewing enterprise. We conveniently forget that he killed all his brothers in cold blood in order to safely mount the Moghul throne in Delhi. He was a despot in every contemporary sense of the word and that is how he should be regarded. The CII under the leadership of the maulana from the obscure depths of evolutionary history has done nothing except to add more miseries to the otherwise wretched lives of the faithful in our country. Typically, CII men too suffer from their type’s almost genetic indifference and disgust towards females. There seems to be no place in their hearts for the persona and feelings of a daughter, sister, mother or a wife. If there was, they would have thought long and hard before issuing an edict as they have or removing the lower age limit permitting child marriages. They seem to have vey little concept of human dignity and within that dignity, the rights of a wife. What compels a male to want a second marriage if his first wife is healthy, has children and fully participates with her husband in their entire range of domestic affairs? The Council is now culpable in creating mechanisms for the covetousness of Muslim men in the country. My late father married a number of times. My mother, a proud Pathan woman, never complained, but one could feel the palpitating sense of hurt she emanated and a studied frostiness in her expression for as long as she lived. Her self-esteem seemed to have been dented beyond repair but she refused to break. We were seven brothers and sisters and but for the dignified support of our maternal uncles we could have been severely morally twisted. A polygamous household is an unremitting living hell that one very earnestly prays no child should ever have to endure. These mullahs have the temerity to challenge the word of God, which clearly warns that a polygamous male will not be able to do justice between his wives. Would any of these paragons of fiqh and keepers of Sharia be kind enough to restore the self-respect, dignity and lost years of my mother to her? Can they recompense us for year upon year of torment and the loss of our father’s attention when we needed it the most? They may not care for their own daughters but I do for mine, as did the Holy Prophet (PBUH) when he prevented Ali (RAW), his son-in-law, from remarrying as long as his daughter Bibi Fatima lived. Despite their rather exaggerated spiritual appearances, the members of the CII are essentially worldly men. They live and breathe in the same society that they wish to rule. However, they would be fully aware of the other equally daunting maladies that afflict us. Is honour killing a lesser evil? How about ‘wani’, women being forced to marry the Quran, hideous domestic violence, ghastly acid attacks, legitimised gang-rape and barbaric auto-da-fe’s? What constructive and substantive intervention has the Council made to mitigate the deliberate oppression of women in our society? Practically: none at all. What about the plight of the homeless, orphans and the poverty stricken; one is yet to hear anything about these human sufferings from them. Then there are sectarian killings, extremism, suicide bombings and wanton destruction of life and property – yet not a word. What makes it more painful is that there are retired judges, bureaucrats, and even a few men of letters on this Council. Judges and bureaucrats have since long lost their luster, a few noble exceptions notwithstanding. Men of letters are not equipped to stand up to the vicious belligerence of medieval men. Ironically, the CII’s only quarterly journal is titled Ijtehaad, which roughly translates as ‘intelligent innovation’. A far cry from what the Council is up to these days, which is mostly ‘unmitigated regression’. The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army and can be reached at clay.potter@hotmail.com