PKR will not support hudud bill in Parliament 
MalaysiaKini.com
Mar 21, 2015 
 
PKR today declared it will not support the private member's bill on hudud initiated by PAS if it is tabled in Parliament.

This, the party said, is because PAS had taken a unilateral decision in violation of the Pakatan Rakyat leadership council decision on Feb 8.

PKR's statement today was signed by party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and her top leadership.

PKR was responding to letter sent by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (left) on March 18 notifying Parliament that he will be tabling a private member’s bill this session.

The private member’s bill is to amend the Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 to give effect to the amended Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment 1993 which forms the basis of hudud in the state.

“We were never informed of the private member’s bill. It is a unilateral decision without notice to Pakatan Rakyat partners and contravenes the Pakatan Rakyat leadership council meeting’s decision on Feb 8.

“If the private member’s bill concerns the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment, PKR maintains its original positon that it will not support it based on the principles of Fiqh Al-Awlawiyyat (fiqh of priorities), Maslahat Ummah (public interest) and Maqasid Syariah (higher objectives of Syariah),” said PKR in a joint statement this afternoon.

The statement was signed by the entire PKR top leadership, namely president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy president Azmin Ali, vice-presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin and Rafizi Ramli, Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin and Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

Having declared its stance, PKR said the ball was now in BN’s court as according to House rules a private member’s bill can only be debated with the government’s endorsement.

“The fact is, no top Umno or BN leader have publicly declared their stance on the private member’s bill if it is brought to Parliament, including Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

“Therefore PKR urges the Umno-BN government to clarify whether it will endorse the private member’s bill to be debated and voted on in Parliament,” said PKR.

BN component parties oppose bill

DAP has already declared that it will oppose the bill in Parliament if it comes up for a vote.

PKR has 29 parliamentary seats but only 28 can vote as Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is in jail. There is also one Independent, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, who was formerly a PKR MP.

DAP and PAS have 37 and 21 parliamentary seats respectively.

Meanwhile, BN component parties other than Umno have also declared to Najib that they are opposed to any implementation of hudud.

However, an official BN statement on its stance expected yesterday never materialised as Umno top leaders disagreed with the BN component leaders.

Umno has 88 parliamentary seats while the remaining BN component parties have a total of 46 seats.

If Umno and PAS were to combine their votes in favour of the bill, it will still be three votes short of a simple majority. 

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