KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — PAS is in danger of becoming an untrustworthy party to its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) allies and by extension to Malaysians so long as Datuk Seri Hadi Awang remains its president, federal opposition lawmaker Tony Pua said today.

In a strongly-worded statement, Pua accused his PR colleague of “betraying” their seven-year-old pact by “maliciously twisting words” to push forward with Kelantan’s hudud amendment proposals in its state legislative assembly last week.

“It is ironical that Datuk Seri Hadi Awang who paints himself as a pious religious leader should indulge in such blatant dishonesty and deceit.  

“His treacherous behaviour can only lead to the conclusion that as long as he remains the President of PAS, the Party cannot be trusted by both Pakatan Rakyat and Malaysians,” the DAP national publicity secretary said.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP pointed out that DAP has repeatedly voiced its disagreement to the rollout of hudud at various levels since the three-party pact was formed after the 2008 general elections.

He said that DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang had signed a statement in September 2011 agreeing to disagree on the controversial hudud issue and should not be mistaken for anything more.

“When coalition partners agree to disagree, it means that it is not the coalition policy.  And any attempt to implement any policy vigorously opposed within the coalition is therefore a contemptuous violation and betrayal of the coalition,” Pua said.

PAS-ruled Kelantan passed key amendments to its Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 on Thursday in a move to enable the eventual implementation of hudud in the Malay-majority east coast state.

All 12 Umno state lawmakers voted for the amendments but the ruling party’s national leadership has yet to declare if the same support would be given to PAS’s hudud ambition at the federal level.

Next week, all BN component parties including Umno are expected to issue a joint statement to declare its position on the controversial issue.

The statement is expected to precede PAS’s attempt to table a private members’ Bill in the ongoing Parliament session that will enable Kelantan to carry out punishments under hudud. Among others, the Islamic criminal justice system prescribes amputation as punishment for crimes like stealing.

Hadi had earlier this week served notice to Parliament on the proposed Bill but BN’s law minister Datuk Nancy Shukri said it may not make it into the order paper for the current session as there are many others on the schedule.

PAS only has 21 MPs in the lower House and would need to rely on Muslim MPs from other parties in order to get a simple majority of 112 votes to get the Bill passed.

DAP’s national central executive committee is expected to hold a meeting tonight discuss its position in PR following PAS’s hudud manoeuvre in Kelantan.