PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has succeeded in striking out the application challenging his bid to table an amendment in Parliament which allows for hudud’s implementation in Kelantan.

The decision was made today by Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Asmabi Mohamad who ruled that the application should have been raised by way of judicial review and not through an originating summons.

She also ruled that the four applicants - Mansoor Saat, Azira Aziz, Hasbeemaputra Abu Bakar, and Hazwany Jamaluddin - do not have locus standii (legal standing) to make the challenge as they did not state their interests in the matter.

"The court also ruled that Hadi had properly filed the bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 through the private member’s bill in Parliament.

"The court also found that the four cannot seek an injunction on a government officer as the secretary to Parliament is a government officer," said Hadi’s lawyer Takiyuddin Hassan, who is also PAS secretary-general, when contacted.

The amendments were sought by Hadi and PAS as the Act currently limits the punishment of syariah offences to six strokes of the rotan, three years' jail, and a fine of up to RM5,000. Hudud seeks to impose punishments greater than those.

The four are seeking for a court declaration that Hadi's private member’s bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 is unconstitutional.

The four of them had named Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, deputy speakers Ismail Mohamed Said and Ronald Kiandee, and parliamentary secretary Rosmee Hamzah as defendants in the suit.

They sought an injunction to stop the lower house from debating the private member’s bill.

Gerakan had also mounted a legal challenge in the Federal Court on the hudud bill by providing four constitutional questions.

In dismissing their leave application on Oct 20, apex court judge Zaharah Ibrahim said the applicants had failed to reveal how they are affected by the proposed law and show whether they are indeed Muslims.

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