Both PAS and the government are to be blamed for being "gelojoh" (hasty) in the tabling of the private member's bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdictions) Act or Act 355.

PAS' Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar said this in response to the BN supreme council's decision that the bill would remain as a private member’s bill and that the federal government would not take over its tabling in Parliament.

Both parties, he said, should have heeded the roadmap issued by the technical committee on the implementation of hudud in the country.

"If they had gone about it wisely, I don't think BN members would reject the bill.

"Gelojoh politics led to this," Mahfuz told reporters in the Parliament building today.

Asked whether PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang was also hasty over the matter, he said both Hadi and the government were guilty of it.

"I don't understand the need for gelojoh politics. It's not about who tabling it. What is important is that we get what we want.

"When the (federal) government said it wanted to table the bill, then it should have done so. This is a failure of the Barisan Nasional."

The government, he added, should have spearheaded the effort from the start.

“And even though it may not be tabled in this seating, it’s fine as long as it can be tabled. We haven’t been careful in going about this," he said.

Meanwhile, Mahfuz is of the opinion that the private member’s bill would not get the opportunity to be tabled.

This is because Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs Jamil Khir Baharom must first allow the private member’s bill to precede the government’s bills.

“The speaker is tied with the standing order. If the minister gives way, of course, this would contradict BN’s consensus.

“I don’t think the private member’s bill will precede government’s affairs and would (therefore) remain at the back burner until the end of this parliamentary sitting."

Najib last night said that it was up to the speaker to decide on the private member’s bill, for it to be tabled or otherwise.

This, he had explained, was in line with the BN’s practice of consensus.

Previously, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that the government was looking to take over the bill, to the dismay of BN component parties, many of whom are opposed to it.

The motion to table the bill to amend Act 355 was first tabled by Hadi in last year's parliamentary seating, while it was allowed, the debate and voting for the motion was delayed until this seating at his own request.

The bill seeks to increase the penalties that the Syariah Courts can mete out, as well as to expand its criminal jurisdictions over Muslims in criminal offences.

Some say this will allow states like Kelantan with existing hudud or Islamic penal code legislation to enforce harsher punishments and for more offences, as previously they were bound by restrictions in Act 355.