Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali today criticised the government for not exempting an 18-year-old mother of two from national service training.

He expressed disappointment with the authorities for merely deferring Sofiah Hanim Dzulkifly's training stint for two years and called on the government to be more humane.

"The important point to make is that in principle, parents who have babies or small children whom they have to take care of should...be exempted from national service," he said in a statement.

According to news reports, Sofiah Hanim was granted a deferment instead of an exemption to allow her to nurse her three-month-old baby.

The child was born two weeks after she was supposed to have registered for the programme in March. She also has a 16-month-old daughter.

Syed Husin said the lives of such parents would be affected during the training period and some might even encounter problems finding suitable minders for the children.

Self-employed youths

He pointed out that the government should also exempt youths who are self employed or working with companies who cannot pay them during their national service stints.

"Some of them may depend on their salary to support their parents or to maintain their own wives and children. We strongly feel that such youths, male or female, must also be exempted from national service," he said.

Meanwhile, news reports today said that 5,000 national service dodgers have been given their sixth deadline extension - 5pm on July 24 - to sign up for a special training session scheduled to start on July 25.

Should they still ignore the call-up, the youths stand to spend up to six-months in jail or pay up to RM3,000 in fines, or both. Prior to the expiry of the previous deadline on June 28, only 3,242 of 8,559 dodgers had registered.