LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly has demanded appointment of women as members to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) ‘as per constitutional requirement’.

The demand was made through a resolution tabled by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Sania Kamran during Wednesday’s sitting of the provincial house.

The resolution said the Article 228(3) (d) of the Constitution requires that at least one of CCI members shall be a woman. As the government has appointed 12 [new] members as well as the chairman of the council but no woman is included among them.

The house demands that the federal government immediately ensure appointment of women to the Council of Islamic Ideology as per requirement of the above mentioned clause of the Constitution.

Tareen group member assures support for budget

Earlier, the house discussed FIR against treasury MPA Nazir Chohan. The chair, being held by Mian Shafi, the panel of the chairman, gave the ruling that registration of a case [by Adviser to PM on Accountability Mirza Shehzad Akbar] against Mr Chohan as inappropriate and directed Law Minister Raja Basharat to resolve the issue.

Arguing that as a Muslim one cannot ask about other’s faith, the law minister objected to challenging one’s faith without having any evidence.

He said if one didn’t trust in the prime minister, who appointed Mr Akbar as his adviser, one has no right to sit in the house on a ticket granted by Imran Khan.

Opposing Mr Chohan’s demand for setting up a committee on determining the faith of Mr Akbar, he said Mr Chohan must bring two witnesses from Gujar Khan, the hometown of the adviser, to prove his assertion about Akbar’s faith.

The minister said he knew Akbar for the last 40 years but never heard about him being related to Ahmedis.

PML-N’s Pir Ashraf Rasool and Tareen group’s Saaed Akbar Niwani spoke against the FIR and assured their support for Mr Chohan.

Mr Niwani challenged the minister’s assertions that Chohan should abandon the house and said the MPA didn’t violate any party policy by speaking against the adviser and cautioned Raja Basharat that if the MPAs went out of the house as suggested by him then none could run the house.

He said the adviser nowhere mentioned in the FIR against Chohan that he was not an Ahmedi.

Mr Niwani also dispelled the impression that the Tareen group would not support passage of the budget and said “this government’s budget is our budget and we’ll help get it passed.”

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2021