By Pauline Wong

The private members bill for hudud which PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has so vigorously pursued is, for now, not among the motions which will be discussed in the upcoming parliament session, sources have revealed.

It is understood that in the preliminary order papers released yesterday, the motion to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 or Act 355 is conspicuously absent.

Hadi Awang

In the previous parliament sitting, Hadi had submitted a private members bill to amend Act 355, after the Kelantan state assembly unanimously approved the Shariah Criminal Code 11 1993 (Amendment 2015) on March 19.

The debate on the motion was postponed until the end of the sitting or until all government motions have been debated, as is customary with private members bills.

Eventually, it was never debated at all to make way for the more important debate on the amendments to the Sedition Act 1948.

However, the motion could still be listed in the order papers at a later date, as every private members bill must be submitted with sufficient notice of 14 days.

Yesterday, PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu as well as Deputy Kelantan Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah, said that PAS has resubmitted the motion for this coming May 18 parliamentary session. Neither, however, specified when they did so.

When contacted, PAS central executive committee member Mohd Hanipa Maidin said he could not confirm whether the bill has been submitted, as he had not seen the bill.

“I raised this issue last week at a CEC meeting, and Kota Bharu (MP Takiyuddin Hassan) told me that the bill has been submitted, and has also been amended. However, I am also in the dark about the amended bill, which I have not seen,” he said.

The implementation of hudud has been a sore point of contention for Pakatan Rakyat in recent times, with both the DAP and PAS disagreeing to the point that DAP announced it will cut all ties with Hadi over his reneging on the PR common policy framework.

– The Rocket