PAS has stated it is ready to accept the decision of Parliament in the event its Private Member's Bill on hudud is rejected, saying the party respects the nation’s democratic principles.

Its information chief Mahfuz Omar said while PAS wishes its motion on implementing hudud, the Islamic criminal law, in Kelantan be accepted, it wants to achieve its ambition via a “democratic space”.

“We are a democracy, we support democracy in the country.

“That is why we ask that the people give Kelantan the space to table this Bill,” he says in a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Mahfuz also told Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak not to pussyfoot around the issue and bravely bring the hudud Bill to Parliament with the backing of his party colleagues.

"If he is not a sissy ( pondan ), he should bring the Bill to Parliament. Bring it and make sure the Bill gets passed and that Umno MPs turn up to vote," he said.

PAS have been asking for hudud in Kelantan since 1993 but was shot down by the BN government in the past.

The Islamist party resurrected the idea last month through a plan to table a private Bill in Parliament to strengthen its Syariah criminal code instead. Several Umno MPs appeared lukewarm to the idea this time round, which further galvanised PAS, despite protests from DAP and BN partners MCA and Gerakan.

Najib, meanwhile, has not stated his stand clearly enough on hudud. He commented last month that the government did not rejec t it because it was "Allah's Law" but said it could not endorse its implementation at the moment due to various "restraints and issues".

Mahfuz, who is also Pokok Sena MP, also asked for sufficient space in mainstream media such as RTM so as to be able to explain hudud to all.

"Invite PAS ulama, Kelantan government representative, possibly the PAS president (Hadi Awang) himself, to clarify and explain about hudud, " Mahfuz said, issuing another dare to the Najib administration.

On another matter, Mahfuz said he would reject calls for PAS to leave Pakatan Rakyat over its hudud position, even though DAP publicly opposes it.

He added that he would wait and see if Umno would kick MCA out from BN first over hudud before PAS would consider its own exit from Pakatan over this issue.