Several PAS lawmakers protested, with one receiving marching orders, after a minister revealed that the federal government did not bring the proposed hudud amendments to the conference of rulers on March 11.

Contrary to a The Malaysian Insider article claiming that the rulers had rejected the amendments, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom said it was never brought to their attention in the first place.

This riled up PAS MPs, who said the federal government had promised in the Kelantan-federal government joint hudud technical committee that the government would bring the amendments to Parliament.

Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) was ejected from the House after repeatedly trying to ask Jamil Khir as to why the government did not follow on was agreed upon in the technical committee.

He was given the boot by deputy speaker Ismail Mohamed Said after more than 30 minutes of arguments, with the minister offering no other substantial reply on the matter.

"This was already agreed to in the committee. They were supposed to bring this bill to the conference of rulers on March 11. Because they didn't, (PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang) had to bring in a private member's bill," Mahfuz ( left ) said in a press conference after being ejected.

 

"The bill would have made it easy for Kelantan to enforce what was passed in the state assembly recently.

 

"This proves that when there was pressure from BN component parties (on hudud), the government stopped pursuing the matter," he maintained.

 

News portal slammed

Mahfuz also said that the government should have intervened in Gerakan's attempts to strike out hudud implementation in Kelantan via legal action.

 

Another PAS central committee member Kamaruddin Jaafar, the Tumpat MP, said that the state government had "acted in good faith" after trusting the federal government's promises.

Meanwhile, several BN MPs took turns to attack The Malaysian Insider's report on the issue during de facto Law Minister Nancy Shukri's winding-up speech.

" The Malaysian Insider is an irresponsible portal that has twisted the facts involving the royal institution, and yesterday, twisted the words of the prime minister... They cannot be let off just like that," said Noh Omar (BN-Tanjung Karang).

Johari Abdul Ghani (BN-Titiwangsa) suggested that the government instructed the Malaysian Multimedia and Communications Commission (MCMC) to take action against the portal to set an example.

"This matter can ruin the country. It has touched on two important institutions; the prime minister and ridiculed the royal institution," said Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (BN-Lenggong).

In reply, Nancy said a police report must be lodged for there to be investigations against the portal.