KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 ― Victories in the Permatang Pauh and Rompin by-elections will signal a push towards supporting Kelantan's hudud and a rejection of Putrajaya's Goods and Services Tax (GST), PAS MP Datuk Dr Khairuddin Aman Razali said today.
The PAS Ulama information chief said that members of the Islamist party must actively campaign in both by-elections, and that double wins will allow a fresh mandate for PAS to push ahead with its hudud plans.
“PAS members have to campaign in Rompin and Permatang Pauh to reject GST and to support the implementation of hudud,” Khairuddin said in a statement here.
“PAS and PKR have to win in Rompin and Permatang Pauh and that this will become signal that people oppose GST and support the amendments at Act 365,” he added, referring to the amendment of laws which will allow the Kelantan government to implement hudud.
The Kelantan state assembly approved the Shariah Criminal Code (II) (1993) 2015 Enactment on March 19 with 31 votes from PAS lawmakers supported by 12 from Umno.
In return, DAP pilloried PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang for his party’s hudud push, saying it will no longer work with him even as it vowed to remain in the PR pact.
The DAP’s central executive committee accused Hadi of cooperating with Umno on hudud, in violation of the pact’s common consensus and Common Policy Framework.
Hadi submitted the private member’s Bill to Parliament to remove the legal obstacles that prevent the enforcement of hudud in Kelantan, which requires bipartisan support from Umno and others to pass.
The Bills did not make it into the April sitting’s agenda, however, and PAS has since confirmed that the party will again seek to table it in May.
