KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Federal lawmakers are duty bound to reject the implementation of hudud in Kelantan as no state in Malaysia has the power to enact criminal laws, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said today.

The senior lawyer and human rights activist argued that there is no provision under the country’s apex law that permits the Kelantan state assembly to go ahead with plans to implement Islamic criminal law in the state.

“As MPs the first qn to ask is if a State has right to pass laws relating to crim punishment. The answer is NO,” she said in a series of tweets.

On Thursday, 43 state assemblymen from PAS and rivals Umno voted to allow amendments to the Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 - meant to pave way for the controversial implementation of hudud law in the PAS-led state.

The amendments were to go in tandem with two private members bills aimed at amending the Federal Constitution to allow Kelantan to enforce hudud.

Despite the clear support for hudud by Umno’s Kelantan chapter, the party’s federal lawmakers have largely been silent on the matter.

Johor Bahru MP Tan Sri Shahrir Samad was reported to have said that there was no directive by the party for its MPs to vote for PAS’ hudud bills, saying that he believes “it will be a conscience vote” among Muslim lawmakers.

Ambiga today, however, hit out at the argument that it is a matter of conscience, stressing on Twitter that the primary guiding principle for MPs is the Federal Constitution.

“For me the question is not one of religion. It is a simple matter of law. Are you going to follow the Federal Constitution or ignore it.

“Saying it’s a matter of conscience is disingenuous. The oath taken requires our MPs to act according to the FC,” she said in two separate tweets, referring to the Federal Constitution.