KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Pandemonium broke in the Dewan Rakyat today when a federal minister confirmed that the proposed amendments to Act 355, a federal law that the Kelantan PAS government wants changed to enable its enforcement of hudud, was never presented to the Conference of Rulers.
Yesterday, news portal The Malaysian Insider carried a report claiming the Conference of Rulers had rejected Kelantan’s proposed amendments to the said federal law.
“The amendment was not brought the the Council of Rulers for endorsement,” minister in charge of religious affairs Datuk Seri Dr Jamil Khir Baharom said.
His response infuriated PAS chief whip Datuk Mahfuz Omar (pictured) who demanded the federal government explain why the amendments were not presented to the Council of Rulers.
A shouting match then ensued between the lawmakers, resulting in Mahfuz being ejected from the House by deputy speaker Datuk Ismail Mohamed Said.
“Why did they not bring the amendment, when the joint technical committee on hudud had already agreed to the amendment?
“The government had already agreed to this, and now they break what was agreed, to bring this to the council,” Mahfuz told reporters later.
“The amendments to 355 would have allowed for hudud to be implemented in Kelantan,” the PAS leader said.
Yesterday, a Kelantan government leader disputed the article carried by The Malaysian Insider.
Datuk Mohd Takiyuddin Hassan, who is head of Kelantan’s permanent secretariat on hudud, said yesterday he was informed by Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yaakob that the state’s hudud plans were never presented to the royal council in the first place.
“It’s not true. Nothing to do with the Council of Rulers,” he had said.
He went on to point out that the implementation of hudud in Kelantan had already received blessings from the royal institution as far back as 1993 when the state’s Shariah Criminal Code II enactment was passed.
On Tuesday, 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 Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact.
The DAP’s central executive committee that met on Monday night accused Hadi of cooperating with Umno on hudud, in violation of the pact’s common consensus and Common Policy Framework.
The decision will prevent the PR presidential council from carrying out any policy decisions as a consensus agreement is required, but will leave the state administrations of Selangor and Penang undisturbed.
On March 19, PAS-ruled Kelantan passed key amendments to its Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 in a move to enable the eventual implementation of hudud in the Malay-majority east coast state.
Hadi last week served notice to Parliament on the proposed Bill to amend Act 355, which deals with powers of the Shariah court to mete punishments for criminal offences, but BN’s de facto law minister Datuk Nancy Shukri said it may not make it into the order paper for the current session as there are many others on the schedule.
With DAP and PKR’s rejection, PAS and its 21 MPs in the lower House must rely on all of Umno’s MPs plus more from other non-Muslim parties in order to get a simple majority of 112 votes to get the Bill passed.
- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/chaos-in-parliament-when-minister-reveals-pass-hudud-bill-never-shown-to-ma#sthash.i6rDAWLj.dpuf
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