KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mocked Perikatan Nasional as "hypocrites” today, saying its renewed interest in a Bill to amend Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act was insincere.

He said the former ruling coalition did nothing to move the issue forward while in charge of the country, and only became concerned about the Bill also called RUU 355 — the Malay initials for a Bill to amend Act 355 — once trying to get back in power.

"RUU355, I thought they had forgotten for three years. When they became the government, they forgot.

"When they became the Opposition, they brought it up. That’s not Islamic (politics), that’s cheap politics,” he told reporters after attending the International Book Fair at World Trade Centre (WTCKL) here today.

Two days ago, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Senator Datuk Mohd Na’im Mokhtar said the Bill would be tabled once the Cabinet has given its approval.

He said the Bill would arrive in Parliament alongside the Shariah Courts (Federal Territories) Bill, in a bid to empower the Shariah judicial system.

However, the minister did not specify when the Bill would be presented to the Cabinet for its approval.

Earlier this week, PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang claimed there were sections of Umno that were against the Bill.

In 2016, Hadi was allowed to table his private member’s Bill to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act — dubbed the hudud Bill at the time — after the Barisan Nasional government unexpectedly yielded its time to him in Parliament.

But nothing further came off the Bill after, including when PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan was the de facto law minister between March 2020 and August 2021.