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Husam says Hadi may be wrongly advised on 'Hudud Bill'
Published:  Jun 1, 2016 11:00 AM
Updated: 4:10 AM

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang may have been wrongly advised in going against the Islamist party's decision to table a Private Member's Bill to amend Act 355 and pave the way for implementation of hudud in Kelantan.

In revealing this, Salor assemblyperson Husam Musa said Hadi's move also went against a decision by a federal-level joint technical committee on Syariah offences that met in Kota Baru from Dec 18 to 20, 2014.

"The (Kelantan) state government and federal government joint committee had unanimously decided the motion must be brought by a minister, after going through the Royal Council that was scheduled to meet in March 2015, and it be subsequently tabled by May/June this year," said Husam who was at the time a PAS vice-president.

This is revealed in Husam's appeal letter to Hadi, challenging a disciplinary committee decision to sack him from PAS.

In his letter, Husam refuted three allegations related to his purported remarks on the proposed amendments.

He pointed out that the issue was one of the reasons behind Hadi's move to go against the agreement made by the two parties.

"The motion signed by the president was sent to Parliament on March 18, 2015, before (amendments to) the Syariah Offences Enactment were passed by the Kelantan state legislative assembly," said Husam who questioned the "extraordinary" rush to table the bill.

He also said the PAS political bureau only met to discuss the motion after it had been filed.

On May 11 last year, Hadi announced that PAS has decided to postpone tabling of his Private Member’s Bill in Parliament, which was scheduled to sit again in June.

This was to allow further study by the joint technical committee.

Husam also said that he stood by his claim that a representative of a minister and a parliamentary officer had visited the Kelantan state government on March 17 or 18, 2015.

The visit was purportedly on behalf of a minister to convince the state government that the motion must be urgently tabled as a Private Member's Bill and therefore, going against the decision of the joint technical committee.

Furthermore, Husam said, Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah had in March this year said Hadi did not table his motion at the time because it had yet to receive the consent from the Conference of Rulers.

"Why was this not taken into consideration when the party in question (Mohd Amar) advised the president to raise the motion in such a rushed manner one year ago?" Husam asked.

However, he insisted, he was merely questioning the manner in which the amendments were proposed, rather than making personal attacks against Hadi.

Hadi's Private Member’s Bill, or officially the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Bill 2016, is also referred to as the "Hudud Bill" as it would ultimately pave the way for the partial implementation of the Islamic penal code in PAS-ruled Kelantan.

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