KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — Karpal Singh would have eventually accepted PAS’s plan to enforce hudud in Kelantan, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said today, citing the DAP leader’s extensive understanding of the country’s laws.

In a posting on his official Facebook account today, the PAS spiritual adviser said he was disappointed that Karpal had not been able to receive his party’s explanation of its plans to implement the controversial law.

“I am a little upset,” he said. “I am confident that his understanding of laws would have enabled him to accept the implementation of hudud.”

He pointed out that Karpal had not been among those who objected to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II when it was enacted in 1993, and praised the veteran DAP politician’s strong support for the Federal Constitution.

“Karpal Singh was someone who strongly supported the Malaysian Constitution. If we have someone who understood the principles of the Constitution like him, Kelantan would receive no backlash for implementing hudud,” said Nik Aziz.

In his posting, the former Kelantan mentri besar also offered his condolences to Karpal’s family members and described him as a “principled and strong-willed person”.

Before his sudden death this morning, Karpal was seen as the loudest critic of PAS’s plan to implement the controversial Islamic penal code that prescribes harsh punishments like amputation and flogging for crimes like theft, robbery, rape and sodomy.

The former DAP national chairman, in criticising his political allies in PAS, also called Kelantan’s hudud plan unconstitutional and ill-advised.

On March 3, Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob was reported as saying that PAS was planning to propose a Private Members’ Bill in Parliament, with hopes that it would allow the state to finally enforce hudud laws as early as next January.

In 1993, the PAS state government passed the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II, but the strict Islamic penal code has not been enforced.

In Islamic jurisprudence, hudud covers crimes such as theft, robbery, adultery, rape and sodomy.  Punishments for the crimes are severe, including amputation, flogging and death by stoning.

Karpal, 74, was killed after the Toyota Alphard MPV he was travelling in crashed following a collision with a lorry along the North-South Highway near Gopeng, Perak at about 1.10am this morning.

He was believed to be travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Penang for a court hearing this morning.

Karpal, who was seated in the front passenger seat, was killed on the spot together with his long-time assistant, Michael Cornelius.