KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — Kelantan is unlikely to hold a special state assembly sitting on hudud laws before Parliament sits in March, Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob said as heavy floods, the worst in decades, upended a scheduled December 29 sitting on the matter.
Ahmad said the PAS state government has not set a new date for the sitting, which was meant to amend the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II.
“We’re still trying to restore everything since the floods. Once everything’s back to normal, then only we’ll do it,” Ahmad told Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday.
When asked if the special state assembly sitting would be held before Parliament’s first sitting in March, the Kelantan MB from the Islamist party said: “Maybe not enough time”.
The special assembly was said to have allowed PAS to initiate its plan to table in Parliament a private member’s bill to amend the Federal Constitution, which would subsequently allow Kelantan to enforce hudud, a strict Islamic penal code that includes punishments like amputation and death by stoning.
PAS information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar, however, has denied this by saying the changes were merely updates as the enactment was passed over 20 years ago.
Lawyers have said hudud — which covers crimes like rape, sodomy, theft and robbery — is unconstitutional as criminal law falls under federal jurisdiction according to the Federal Constitution.
PAS is facing heavy fire from its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ally, the DAP, for its insistence on implementing hudud in Kelantan, a controversial move the secular party says could be the “last straw” to break the young opposition coalition.
Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said implementing Shariah law was PAS’ objective.
“It is the main reason of our existence and struggle. Only Allah The Almighty can stop us from moving towards it,” Amar told Malay Mail Online.
