• Number of the CII members completed after President Dr Arif Alvi gave approval for eight members.
• Sources said three out of the new appointees have been members of the council earlier as well.
• Two former judges have already been made members of the council.

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has seats of 20 members, however slots for eight members had been vacant for one year, Bol News reported.

Number of the CII members completed after President Dr Arif Alvi gave approval for eight members. A notification in this regard has been issued. The president has given approval for the eight members on a summary sent by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Sources from the CII said three out of the new appointees have been members of the council earlier as well. Two former judges have already been made members of the council.

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Those who have again been made members of the CII are Allama Raghib Naeemi, Malik Allah Bukhsh Kalyar and Pir Khalid Sultan. Justice (retd) Altaf Ibrahim, Justice (retd) Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Dr Abdul Ghafoor Rashid, Muhammad Jalaluddin and Farida Raheem are also new CII members.

As per the constitution, the CII must have 20 members. Appointment of the council members is made for three years. Eight seats of the council had been lying vacant for one year.

In December 2021, the Council of Islamic Ideology had highly condemned the inhumane actions taken by a mob in the name of Islam against a Sri lankan national in Sialkot and demanded the state to ensure that culprits involved are tried under the law and punished in clear terms.

In a press conference convened after a special session meeting, the council had also said that more legislations will be a futile exercise to avoid cases like Sialkot incident in fact the implementation of laws is the real point of concern in the country.

After the session while reading the declaration of the 226th Special Meeting of the CII, the chairman CII, Qibla Ayaz had said that that the Pakistani government after happening of the incident had handled the difficult situation with utmost wisdom on which the Sri Lankan government and people expressed satisfaction.