Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), has said that Islam has not given any right to a man or a woman to be violent against each other.

He was addressing a press conference after a meeting of the CII here on Thursday. He said although women were financially dependent on their husbands, fathers, brothers and other close relatives, they had full right to live their lives according to their religion. He said that education was the basic right of every woman. He said that a woman could adopt any profession of her choice; she could even join the defence sector. He was of the view that a husband could punish his wife in a very light way if she does not obey him.

Shirani said the CII rejected both bills relating to the protection of women that were adopted by the Punjab and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies because they were against the basic teachings of Islam.

The CII chief told reporters that the council had prepared its own bill on women’s rights. “We are considering the draft, but we have not approved it yet. The members of the council will deliberate over it once again before finalising it,” he said.

Shirani said the council had consultations on the bill forwarded by the Senate relating to physical punishment to children and it would submit its recommendations to the parliament soon. He told journalists that the council on Thursday discussed error-free publication of the Holy Quran by the Punjab Quran Board.