KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Monday passed a resolution expressing reservations on the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) recommendations regarding second marriage.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s (PML-F) leader Mehtab Akhtar Rashidi moved the resolution in the house.
The assembly demanded the disbandment of the council. It also demanded of the federal government that any implementation pertaining to the CII’s decisions regarding underage marriages and DNA tests should be stopped.
Earlier this month, the CII had ruled that there is no minimum age of marriage according to Islam, adding that Pakistani laws prohibiting marriage of underage children are un-Islamic. However, it said, the Rukhsati (consummation of marriage) is only allowed in the case that both husband and wife have reached puberty.
Moreover, the CII chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani said that the laws regarding second marriage of a man in the presence of first wife were against religious principles.
“Sharia allows men to have more than one wife and we demanded that the government should amend the law,” the CII chairman said.
The CII chairman said that the government should amend the law to make the issue of more than one marriage easy and in accordance with Sharia. “We urge the government to formulate Sharia-compliant laws related to nikah, divorce, adulthood and ‘will’.”