KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — PAS will debate on pressing the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)-led state governments to impose the controversial hudud laws in their respective states at the Islamist party’s muktamar (conference) this week, PAS’s Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has said.
Amid renewed debate on the possibility of implementation of the Islamic criminal law in Kelantan, Tuan Ibrahim said hudud was part of the four motions on Islamic laws that will come up for debate in the Islamist party’s upcoming 59th muktamar this Friday.
“In the muktamar, we will also press the states that are controlled by PR to implement those laws,” the PAS information chief was quoted saying by Sinar Harian.
The states currently ruled by the PR opposition pact - composed of PAS, PKR and secular DAP - are Kelantan, Penang and Selangor.
According to Tuan Ibrahim, the party will send a resolution on hudud to Putrajaya after debating on it.
“After we debate that motion in our muktamar, we will send a memorandum pressing the federal government to allow the Islamic legal system,” said the PAS leader who will also oversee the motions debated in the muktamar.
The minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim had reportedly said that motions on hudud will be accepted for debate in the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament.
PAS’s vice-president Fuziah Salleh noted that Kelantan can only start enforcing hudud after the country’s supreme law is amended.
“So, to amend, we need a majority vote. The hudud enactment in Kelantan cannot be implemented as long as the Constitution is not amended.
“So, if the minister said so, we welcome it... we debate,” she was quoted in a separate report today by Sinar Harian.
The Dewan Rakyat is dominated by the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition at 133 seats, while the Pakatan Rakyat pact has 89 seats only.
The Kelantan Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment II, which was passed by the state assembly in 1993, paved the way for the state to use hudud laws.
Malaysia has a parallel legal system of civil laws and syariah laws, with the latter applying only to Muslims, the main religious group in the country.
The use of hudud laws in the country have been floated over the years, but opposition have often arisen from political parties that remain wary of the law.
However, last week, the head of Kelantan’s Syariah Court indicated that they are ready to implement hudud.
“Insya Allah (God willing), Kelantan is able to implement hudud. The law is already there and if there’s a need for more judges, we will add,” Syariah chief judge Datuk Daud Muhammad was quoted as saying by Bernama on November 13.
The northern state’s religious authorities have voiced support for hudud to be meted out, with Kelantan mufti Datuk Mohamad Shukri Mohamad reportedly urging Muslims in the state to take cognisance of the pending enforcement and prepare themselves for it.
Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah, the Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar, said on Saturday that a special court needs to be set up if the state government imposes hudud.
