Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob says the hudud enactment is under ‘embargo’. – The Malaysian Insider pic, February 7, 2015.The PAS government of Kelantan will not table its plan for the implementation of hudud or the Islamic penal code in the state at the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leadership council meeting tomorrow, despite requests to do so by the opposition pact's leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob said.
The bill of the Islamic enactment was under "embargo", he said, and would only be tabled at the state assembly sitting or in Parliament.
"However, we have discussed it at the state's technical committee, which included legal experts, lecturers and non-governmental organisations and including parties from Pakatan, said Ahmad, according to a report in PAS-owned portal Harakahdaily.
"So this Sunday, we cannot table the enactment, the next stop is Parliament," the menteri besar had said last night in Kota Baru.
Yesterday, Anwar urged PAS to table the proposed amendments to the state's Shariah Criminal Code Enactment 11 at the PR leadership council meeting tomorrow before taking it to Parliament.
The opposition leader said the meeting among the three parties was the best opportunity to present the enactment so that DAP and PKR leaders would have the chance to evaluate it and understand PAS's motives better.
The enactment paves the way for Kelantan to implement the Islamic penal code in the state. It would also have to move a private member's bill in Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution in order for hudud to be enforced in the state.
The Permatang Pauh MP had also said that PR had asked the Kelantan government to show its partners in the opposition pact its hudud proposal first before making any decisions.
PAS's plan to implement hudud law in Kelantan has been strongly opposed by its coalition partner DAP, which has always maintained that enforcing hudud would be unconstitutional and contrary to democratic principles.
Tomorrow, the PR leadership council is set to meet since its last meeting in October, and the attendance of PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang is highly anticipated given his absence at past meetings for about a year.
The council meets ahead of next Tuesday's Federal Court verdict on Anwar's sodomy appeal. PR is not yet clear on who should lead the pact if the court upholds his conviction and jails him. – February 7, 2015.
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