Accept hudud to save Pakatan, PAS tells allies

(Malay Mail Online) – PAS today turned the tables on allies telling it to end its hudud ambitions to preserve the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact, urging PKR and DAP to embrace the Islamic penal law towards the same end.

This comes as Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah told Malay Mail Online that the state will not revise its amendments to the Islamic penal law as requested by the PR leadership.

“To avoid PR breaking up, it is better if PKR and DAP state their agreement to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993,” PAS vice president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man was quoted as saying by party organ Harakah Daily.

Tuan Ibrahim insisted that hudud was the right of Muslims and has nothing to do with followers of other faiths.

He also added that PAS was trying to achieve its goal of enforcing hudud in Kelantan via democratic means, which he said was the foundation of the federal opposition pact.

On Thursday, the PR presidential council told PAS to “reconsider” its proposed amendments to its Kelantan hudud bill, after the Islamist party shared the planned legislative changes with the opposition pact for the first time.

DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo, who was present at the PR presidential council meeting, had argued that the planned amendments were essentially an entirely new piece of legislation and not just minor updates to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 as previously claimed.

He added, however, that DAP will continue to reject hudud as it was “and against Pakatan’s common policy framework.”

The Kelantan state government reportedly plans to table amendments to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 at the state legislative assembly on March 18.

Details of the proposed amendments, however, have not been made public nor did the PAS-led state administration share copies of the bill with their PR partners until this week.

Both PKR and DAP are opposed to ally PAS’s bid to enforce hudud in Kelantan, which has instead found support from rival Umno.