PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang today defended his move to keep the Islamic party in the dark over his private member's bill on hudud.

 

"This is normal. I have even presented a similar private member's bill in 1996.

 

"(At that time) it was also not brought to the (PAS) meeting," he told a press conference in Ampang today.

 

The private member's bill seeks to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, which currently limits punishment meted out by syariah courts to no more than three years’ imprisonment, up to RM5,000 fine, and six strokes of rotan for certain offences.

 

Removing the limits will allow the syariah courts to issue punishment according to Kelantan's hudud legislation, which among others include stoning to death and up to 80 lashings.

 

Yesterday, PAS' Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad had accused Abdul Hadi of sidelining the party leadership by failing to bring the private member's bill for discussion at the PAS central committee.

 

Khalid pointed out that even PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali was not in the loop when the private member's bill submitted to the Parliament secretary first became public on March 20.

 

The bill has since been deferred by Parliament to the next sitting in May due to time constraint.

'We are still in Pakatan'

Abdul Hadi also defended his actions for not consulting Pakatan Rakyat, stating that hudud was the PAS-led Kelantan government's prerogative.

"It's like how Penang negotiated for the second bridge with the federal government.

"It can't be that Kelantan cannot negotiate on syariah matters with the federal government?" he said.

On a separate matter, Abdul Hadi denied he met with former Selangor menteri besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim ( right ) in Egypt to discuss restoring the latter to his position of power.

He stressed that the main purpose he was in Egypt was to meet with Islamic scholars and academics there about Muslim unity.

Before Abdul Khalid's ouster, Abdul Hadi had insisted the former be retained and vehemently opposed to PKR's proposal to appoint its president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as menteri besar.

PKR deputy president Azmin Ali was eventually appointed as menteri besar as a compromise.

Asked if PAS will boycott Wan Azizah again if she was to contest in the Permatang Pauh by-election following the jailing of her husband Anwar Ibrahim, Abdul Hadi merely replied: "We are still in Pakatan".