Islamabad, March 13 (IANS): The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the retrogressive move by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) to roll back the Muslim family laws and called on the government to stand in defence of women’s rights, a media report Thursday said.

The rebuke from the commission came following the CII's statement Tuesday that there was no minimum age of marriage according to Islam.

"At a time when the state is trying to deal with a grave threat from extremists posing as religious soldiers and the humanitarian challenges in Thar (a region hit by drought), CII’s controversial head Maulana Sheerani has chosen to fire a broadside at the disadvantaged women of the country," Dawn online Thursday quoted the commission's statement issued Wednesday as saying.

The edict aimed at giving parents and guardians licence to give away little girls in marriage and freeing men of the need to secure the permission of their first wives before admitting second wives to their harems is nothing short of a vicious attack on women's and girls' fundamental rights, the statement said.

"The assumptions underlying the suggestions made by Maulana Shirani and his associates are open to challenge not only on the ground of conflict with the Constitution of Pakistan and universal human rights but also for being violative of the spirit of the religion these honourable men claim to follow," the statement said.

It said that quite obviously Maulana Shirani wished to open a new front against women and to reinforce the militants' siege of the state.

In doing so, he has furnished a good reason for a full-scale review of the CII's functions, its powers, and the justification for its existence, the rights panel said.

"The government must not yield to the CII manoeuvre, otherwise it will fail in its duty to protect the rights of women, and also undermine its own defences against extremists' assault on the state's democratic foundations," the statement added.