The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has so far discussed only 27 clauses of the bill it prepared for the protection of women’s rights while the remaining clauses have been sent to research officers of the Council for their input, a CII spokesman said Monday.
CII spokesman Dr Inamullah told media personnel that the bill was drafted by CII Member and senior professor at Jamaitul Ulema Baranri Town Maulana Imadullah. It has a total of 163 sections some of which were discussed in the 204th meeting of the Council.
‘LIGHT BEATING’:
Giving a clarification regarding news published in a section of press regarding the CII prescribing ‘light beating’ of women, he said that the bill actually condemns torture and that CII Chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani was quoting a reference from Surah Nisa which was misinterpreted in media.
He further said that the government should ensure medical treatment of women through women physicians and nurses but that does not mean that in case of non availability of female doctors, no male doctor can treat them.
“Pakistan is far better in medicine than Saudi Arabia but they have established separate women hospitals so why can’t Pakistan do the same?” he said, and added that they had raised the issue as a preventive measure in light of the recent incident in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences where one mentally challenged women was sexually assaulted.
CII TO TAKE A STAB AT CHILDREN’S RIGHTS BILL TOO:
He said that the council is also preparing a bill for children’s rights. He said a few of the clauses from the women’s rights bill were referred to the `Protection of Children Rights’ bill.
He informed that the first chapter of the bill addressed fundamental rights of women, while other main topics included education rights of women, economic rights, political rights, medical rights etc.
He said that section 27 of the bill discussed rights of old women so that they can live a respectable life with proper care and attention.
After recommendations, suggestion and input of CII, the draft bill would be forwarded to Ministry of Law and Justice for vetting and after that it would be presented in the parliament.