SABAK BERNAM, June 11 — PAS’s version of hudud would create an unfair system in Malaysia that violates the Islamic tenet of justice, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Dr Mahathir noted that hudud as PAS envisioned it would cause Muslims to face different punishments from non-Muslims over the same offences.

“In Islam, what is most important is justice. But PAS’s hudud separates non-Muslims from Muslims here.

“Muslims, if they steal, they get their hands chopped, but non-Muslims only get jailed for two months. This is not Islam! This is not fair,” he told reporters in a press conference here today.

Dr Mahathir added that with Malaysia being nearly 40 per cent non-Muslim, it was not possible to implement hudud.

“Hudud law is a fair law, but this is done to cheat the people by using Islam.”

On May 26, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said tabled a motion that raised the so-called hudud Bill from the bottom of the Dewan Rakyat’s agenda to the top, catching many MPs by surprise, including her Cabinet colleagues.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang later asked for the Bill to be deferred to the lower House’s next meeting in October. However, debate continues to rage over the Bill.

PAS and Umno leaders have defended Hadi’s proposal as simply a bid to strengthen the Shariah courts’ punitive powers; they are currently restricted from imposing sentences beyond a three-year jail term, RM5,000 fine and six lashes of the whip on Muslim offenders.

Critics, including from BN’s non-Muslim component parties, assert that Hadi’s Bill is an attempt to introduce hudud in Malaysia via the backdoor.