KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Umno’s briefing to Barisan Nasional (BN) partners on PAS’s Bill to enhance the Shariah courts’ punitive powers has been postponed indefinitely and at least until after two ongoing by-elections, BN leaders said after the Cabinet met today on the issue.
Umno information chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the briefing initially scheduled for tomorrow, where religious experts and constitutional lawyers would explain PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s Bill to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, will not happen before the June 18 Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar polls.
Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng also confirmed the indefinite postponement of the briefing amid campaigning for the two by-elections.
“Postponed to another date,” Liang told Malay Mail Online briefly.
Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong told Malay Mail Online that the Cabinet met this morning on Hadi’s Bill, in which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi were present, and resolved that the BN leadership would discuss and reach a “consensus decision” on the matter.
The Bill only managed to be tabled in Parliament following the intervention of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said from Umno.
BN component party PBB, which is led by Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem, a Muslim, has expressed its objection to Hadi’s Bill that seeks to lift the restrictions, except the death penalty, on Shariah court punishments that are currently limited to three-year jail terms, six strokes of the cane and RM5,000 fines.
Non-Muslim BN component parties Gerakan, MCA and MIC have similarly protested against the Bill on grounds that it is unconstitutional.
