PESHAWAR: The government deferred a bill related to Muslim family laws during consideration stage in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday after religious parties expressed reservations about the amended draft of the proposed law.

The Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was in the consideration stage when lawmaker of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Inayatullah Khan raised objections to the amended draft claiming certain clauses of the bill are in conflict with the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

He demanded that the bill be referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology for opinion.

Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani chaired the proceedings.

Other MPAs of the religio-political alliance supported the member.

Local government minister Shahram Tarakai, who moved a resolution for the passage of the bill, said the draft was cleared by the council ahead of its introduction in the assembly.

He said the amended bill was exclusively applicable to all Muslims belonging to the Shia school of thought (Fiqah-i-Jafria).

However, the MMA lawmakers kept demanding the sending of the bill to the CII.

The minister agreed with the MMA members and deferred the passage of the bill.

He said the draft bill would be sent back to the council.

According to the amended bill, if a Muslim man from Ahl-i-Tashih dies issueless, his widow will receive one-fourth share from his estate and if the deceased has left more than one widows, the widows will receive an equal share from one-fourth share of the estate.

In case of dispute, with reference to sub-section (2), arising due to differences of opinion, the parties or any of the parties may have recourse to a court of competent jurisdiction or by approaching the Mujtahid-i-Alam.

The assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Journalist Welfare Endowment Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Earlier, the opposition protested the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ahsan Iqbal.

Lawmakers of the joint opposition displayed placards in front of the speaker’s dais.

On a point of order, Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani said after the National Accountability Bureau, the government was using the Federal Investigation Agency to blackmail its political rivals.

He said the arrest of PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal by the NAB was illegal and he (Iqbal) had been arrested to pressure politicians to change political loyalties.

Mr Durrani said the government was bent on destroying the FIA.

He said the agency had summoned three PML-N leaders, while the NAB had summoned PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

MPAs Sardar Hussain Babak, Sardar Yousaf and Sher Azam Wazir also condemned the arrest of the PML-N leader.

They also criticised the administration of Rawalpindi for not allowing the PPP to hold a public meeting in the city on Dec 27.

MPA of North Waziristan tribal district Mir Kalam drew the house’s attention towards a volatile situation in the merged tribal districts, especially in his hometown.

He said the security forces had conducted hundreds of operations against militants in the erstwhile Fata but peace hadn’t been restored.

The lawmaker said displaced people had yet to return to their homes in North Waziristan tribal district.

He said the Bakakhel Camp for displaced people in Bannu subdivision had apparently been declared a ‘no go area’ for outsiders.

Mr Kalam said senior politicians and elected representatives were not allowed to visit the camp.

He claimed that thousands of people, who fled North Waziristan area after the launch of a military operation in June 2014, continued to live in Afghanistan due to the prevailing uncertainty in own area.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019