Your wages as lawmakers ‘haram’ if you don’t quit, PAS Ulama tells Harapan Baru reps

(Malay Mail Online) – PAS clerics demanded today lawmakers in party splinter group Harapan Baru (HB) resign from their seats, warning them that their salaries and allowances would be considered “haram” or forbidden if they fail to do so.

The Islamist party’s ulama wing said the former PAS leaders had sworn an oath under the name of Allah when they took up their seats as MPs and state assemblymen, and are therefore bound to Islamic principles under the oath.

“They have sworn an oath to resign as lawmakers if they quit PAS after they win. If not, just like in their oaths, all the wages and allowances they receive is haram for them,” the wing chief Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamad said in a statement.

In Islam, consuming something that is “haram” is seen as committing a sin.

“With a Muslim’s dignity, the pledge should have been followed and not be disobeyed. Only a munafik would default on their promises,” he added, using the Arabic-Malay word for “hypocrites”.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had called lawmakers who were elected under the party banner in the last elections but who have since joined HB to resign from their seats, Malay broadsheet Utusan Malaysia reported in its weekend edition last Sunday.

HB has since announced it will register the new party on August 31 to replace PAS in a new federal opposition pact.