Hectic lobbying and efforts by influential religious scholars and government functionaries have started for the coveted slot of chairman Council of Islamic Ideological Council (CII) as the incumbent head will retire in November,2020.

The CII chairman along with 10 members will retire on November 7, 2020, upon completion of a three years constitutional tenure.

Many influential individuals, having contacts in power corridors, have started lobbing for their selection as chairman and members of the Council of Islamic Ideology. The job tenure of both the CII chairman and members is three years.

According to sources, government functionaries have started pitching names of their close friends as the candidate for slot of the chairman.

Sources claimed that names of Mufti Saeed, Mufti Abdul Qavi and Tahir Ashrafi are under consideration for the top slot, which offers lucrative salary, perks and protocol.

According to the rules of Council of Islamic Ideology, meeting scheduled to be held in March will be considered as the last meeting under the leadership of CII Chairman Dr Qibla Ayaz.

Ten other members of CII including: Qari Abdul Rasheed, Pir Roohul Husnain Moeen, Maulana Raghib Hussain Naeemi, Prof Sahibzada Sajidur Rehman, Abdul Hakim Akbari, Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Sialvi, Khurshid Ahmed Nadeem, Malik Allah Bakhsh Kalyar and Arif Hussain Wahidi will retire in November 2020.

Being a constitutional body, the Council of Islamic Ideology offers non-binding recommendation to parliament on laws compatibility Islamic Sharia. The CII, top slot, however, has been used to accommodate political allies and favorites.

According to rules of the council, at least four meetings of the CII are mandatory during a year and a quorum of seven members is necessary for calling meeting.