CII to wait for govt request to deliberate on bill

First session under new chairman Qibla Ayaz discusses Hindu Marriage Bill

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) on Wednesday decided against any sort of deliberation on the Constitutional Amendment Bill-2017, until asked by the government.

The 208th meeting of the CII was held after the gap of one year and it was the first meeting chaired by its new head Dr Qibla Ayaz, who also had an introductory session with the new members. At the 11th hour it was decided that the deliberations would be held in-camera.



An official privy to the session told The Express Tribune that the CII decided that it itself would not do any kind of consultation on the Constitutional Amendment Bill-2017 until the government would ask for it.

After facing criticism from journalists over holding the session in-camera, some officials said since the CII had to decide new policy guidelines for the media coverage, therefore, media persons were not allowed. The agenda of the meeting, however, did not include any point regarding formulation of new policy guidelines for the media.

Ayaz held a press conference in the evening in which he shared some points discussed in the meeting. He said that few draft bills came under discussion, which had been referred to the CII by the relevant ministries.



These draft bills include National Policy on Interfaith Harmony, Pakistan Penal Code Amendment Bill-2017 to decide amount of blood money to be paid, Pakistan Penal Code Amendment Bill-2017 to decide on punishment for committing suicide, the Prevention of Witchcraft Bill-2017, and Hindu Marriage Bill-2016.

Another official told The Express Tribune that the meeting was informed that deliberation on these draft bills will be started soon. However, the Hindu Marriage bill was discussed in detail during the meeting but no decision was taken on it.