PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu has denied backtracking under pressure on his purported statement that the Islamic party will table a constitutional amendment in Parliament to implement hudud if Pakatan Rakyat takes over Putrajaya.

Mohamad, who is widely known as Mat Sabu, reiterated that the issue did not even arise during his interview with Sin Chew Daily that was published yesterday.

NONE The Chinese-language daily today defended its exclusive interview with Mohamad and accused him of buckling under pressure from his peers in Pakatan.

Asked bv Malaysiakini via SMS today to respond to the matter, Mohamad said: "There was no pressure at all.

"On the Bukit Kepong issue, there were over 1,000 police reports but I did not retract my statement. Perkasa and the Professors Council urged me to withdraw the statement too, but I did not."

In a statement earlier today, Mohamad said he remained convinced that hudud is part of Islamic jurisprudence.

"(However), any implementation of hudud in Malaysia must be done through the processes of parliamentary democracy, the provisions of the federal constitution and agreement within Pakatan.

"In the telephone interview (with Sin Chew Daily ), I did not say that PAS would table hudud in Parliament should Pakatan Rakyat take over the government after the 13th general election," he said.

NONE Despite Mohamad's denials since yesterday, Sin Chew today published several articles, spanning four pages including the front page, in defence of its report.

Its front page headline reads, Constitutional amendment needed to implement hudud; Mustafa: Whether Parliament approves is another story .

The article quotes PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali ( above ) saying Muslims cannot reject hudud, but the constitutional amendment needed must be done democratically. Whether it is approved is a separate issue.

‘Sin Chew Daily did not twist interview'

On Page 3, Sin Chew quotes PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang as having previously told party organ Harakah, after a political bureau meeting, that PAS would table a law for hudud in Parliament.

This would include the preparation of a draft law for both Islamic and non-Islamic NGOs to debate.

pas forum 170609 hu pang chaw 01 Sin Chew also quoted PAS Supporters Club national chairperson Hu Phang Chaw ( right ) saying that party's political bureau has decided to use the democratic processes to decide whether or not hudud would be implemented.

In other words, if Pakatan Rakyat comes into power but the law to implement hudud fails to obtain support from two-thirds of the parliamentarians, then the proposal will simply be set aside.

The daily said: "This means that Sin Chew Daily did not twist the interview with PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu.

"It proves that the PAS Political Bureau has indeed made this decision, but Mohamad backtracked after coming under pressure from his party's allies."

The article added further: "However, the online media continue to play up the issue to create the false impression that Sin Chew Daily had misquoted and twisted Mat Sabu's words."

The paper also said its reporters had tried to contact Mohamad for clarification on his statement that was reported three times yesterday, but could not reach him.