CII opposes president’s clemency power

Body’s chairman says it is against Holy Quran and Sunnah

ISLAMABAD:

Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Chairman Dr Qibla Ayaz has opposed the authority of the country’s president to pardon convicts. The CII chief said the power of the president to pardon punishments was against the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

He added that the president should not have the authority to pardon sentences. Ayaz believed that the president should particularly not have the power to pardon murder sentences, adding that the CII was in contact with the law ministry to discuss other legislations that were against the Sunnah.

He continued that the CII had given its recommendations to the ministry on family laws as well including a second marriage. This is not the first time that the CII has given a controversial recommendation.

In 2021, the CII chairman expressed his concerns over the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2021, adding that the legislation carried some clauses which contradicted the social values of Muslims and declared it un-Islamic.

Ayaz raised 12 points in the bill that he said were unacceptable to the Islamic injunctions and teachings. He was of the opinion that the definition of violence as defined in the bill was distracting. He added that it was unclear if a man remarried, whether or not it would be considered as violence.

The CII chief said if a husband and wife quarreled with each other, then the matter would be referred to police. In this way, he added that the domestic issue would start reaching the police stations that might wreck the family life.

The then PTI-led government faced a great deal of criticism on X (known as Twitter back then) after news broke that it had sent the bill to the CII for review.

In a letter dated July 5, 2021, Babar Awan, the then adviser to the prime minister on parliamentary affairs, pointed out that the bill, initially passed by the National Assembly in April that year, was referred back to the lower house of parliament after the Senate suggested amendments to the proposed law. The letter stated that concerns have been raised over “various definitions and other contents of the bill”.

The bill was initially moved by Shireen Mazari, the then human rights minister, on April 19, 2021 and was only going to apply to Islamabad as Sindh, K-P and Punjab all have their own laws against domestic violence.

Many social media users objected to the fact that the CII lacked female representation, even though it was mandated by Article 228 of the Constitution.
Others believed that the bill was comprehensive enough to “terrify men”.

(With input from agencies)