SHIKARPUR: Council of Islamic Ideology chairman Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani said on Monday that Mumtaz Qadri’s act — though driven by religious sentiments — was illegal because he had taken the law into his own hands and he faced punishment because “no one is above the law”.

Speaking to journalists here, Maulana Sherani said there was no need to legislate a law for women’s protection when they already had all rights secured in all respects under Sharia laws according to the Quran and Sunnah.

He said that he could not comment on the women’s protection bill passed by the Punjab Assembly because he had not yet read it, but at the same time he termed it a violation of Islamic laws and said it could not be accepted.

He opposed all the bills being passed by assemblies without recommendations of the council. The CII was a constitutional body, therefore, every bill should be brought to parliament in the light of its recommendations, he said.

But the present government avoided doing so in violation of the provisions of the Constitution while the government of General Ziaul Haq followed the council’s recommendations, he said.

He said that every citizen was bound to respect the country’s Constitution and anyone who tried to violate it was liable to be punished as a traitor.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2016