ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) on Wednesday observed that the practice of pronouncing ‘talaq’ three times in one go should be discouraged through legal means by imposing a penalty on men who divorce their wives this way.

The council also decided to formulate a divorce deed — ‘talaq nama’— which will be forwarded to clerics for consent.

“First of all, we need to finalise the matter in the council and then we will discuss the matter at a larger forum by calling a conference of Ulema to develop consensus,” CII chairman Dr Qibla Ayaz told reporters after the council’s meeting.

It was observed by the council members that the divorce rate was rising in the country and it had to be contained. “The whole family gets shattered and women and children are the worst sufferers after the divorce,” Dr Ayaz added.

The council members remained divided on the penalty to be imposed on husbands who divorce their wives by pronouncing three ‘talaq’ in one go.

Decides to formulate a divorce deed which will be forwarded to clerics for consent

Similar deliberations were made in the CII meeting held on Jan 15, 2015 by the then chairman of the council, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani. It was decided that the practice of pronouncing triple ‘talaq’ at one time should be deemed an offence.

Even though it was admitted before the media that such pronouncements by the husband are acceptable as per the Hanafi school of thought, Maulana Sheerani had still said that such persons should be punished. However, the CII had failed to develop consensus over what punishment should be awarded to the husband as it had come under pressure from senior Hanafi clerics.

The issue of pronouncing three ‘talaq’ at one time is allowed in the Hanafi school of thought whereas the opinion of Shia and the Ahle Hadith school of thought is different where only one ‘talaq’ will be counted at one time.

“Anybody may repeat the word ‘talaq’ as many times, but it will only be considered one, besides according to Ahle Tashee Fiqh the utterance of this word should not be under any influence, annoyance or depression,” Allama Arif Wahidi, member of the CII, told Dawn.

The council also discussed the issue of underage marriages and it was observed that the minimum age of marriage was considered to be between 16 and 18 years, but Dr Ayaz said that there was a need to further discuss the matter with clerics.

Incidentally, the same issue was also discussed in a CII meeting under the chairmanship of Maulana Sheerani but the clerics had then too failed to determine the minimum age of girls for marriage.

The third issue discussed by the CII meeting on Wednesday was about blasphemous caricatures and it was decided that the council would call a conference involving former diplomats and members of intelligentsia.

“We want to devise a strategy to counter this trend and it would be forwarded to the government,” Dr Ayaz said.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2018