Kelantan deputy MB: PAS will wage ‘war’ against Umno again unless hudud Bill goes through

(Malay Mail Online) – PAS will resume its battle with political foe Umno, ending their current temporary truce, if the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) anchor party does not back its third bid to table its proposed amendments to the controversial Islamic criminal law when Parliament reconvenes in October.

Deputy mentri besar of PAS-led Kelantan Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said this would be the Islamist party’s final attempt to table its proposed legal amendments to strengthen the Shariah Courts’ powers, Malay news portal Astro Awani reported today.

“Correct, that is why we presented the amendment Bill to Act 355, that is an effort to strengthen the Shariah courts and if Umno is truly honest and wants to see the Shariah courts strengthened, they have to give way.

“We will work to and try to put in for the final time the tabling of the Bill in the Parliament session this October. If it fails to happen, after this we will revert back to usual. At this time our ‘ceasefire’ will end and we will engage in war again,” he was quoted saying.

According to Astro Awani, Mohd Amar was commenting on deputy minister Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki’s call for the PAS-led Kelantan’s Shariah Courts to be strengthened before the tabling of hudud laws.

PAS is seeking to amend the Shariah Court Act (Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965 or Act 355, which currently allows the Shariah courts to mete out punishments limited to RM3,000 fine, five years’ jail and six strokes of caning.

Some of the offences under the strict Islamic penal code hudud would prescribe more severe penalties that currently cannot be imposed, leaving Kelantan unable to.enforce hudud despite passing a state law on it decades ago.

PAS had this year tabled its amendment Bill twice in Parliament, but the private Bill was not debated on both occasions due to a lack of time in the parliamentary sittings.

It is unclear if PAS will be able to mount yet another attempt to table its amendment Bill, as a group of citizens had in June filed for an injunction to prevent Parliament from tabling the Bill.

The injunction bid is against Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Mulia Amin, Deputy Speakers Datuk Ronald Kiandee and Datuk Ismail Mohamad Said; and Dewan Rakyat Secretary Datuk Roosme Hamzah.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has since then filed an application to strike out the injunction bid and the High Court in Kuala Lumpur is expected to hear Hadi’s application on September 28.

The next Parliamentary session is expected to be on October 19.