KEPALA BATAS: PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has defended his party’s firm stance on adopting hudud law, saying it is a law that should not be questioned.
He blamed Umno for causing non-Muslims to be confused and afraid of the law.
“To implement hudud law has always been a struggle in PAS. We will continue to campaign for it,” he said when opening the one-day PAS 60th anniversary celebration at the Millennium Hall here yesterday.
Later at a press conference, PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said he would pray that the hudud and qisas jurisprudence law would be adopted in the country eventually although there was currently strong opposition from DAP.
He also claimed DAP had agreed in principle to the hudud legislation, which was passed in Kelantan and Terengganu in 1993 and 2003 respectively, but wanted its adoption to be based on the Federal Constitution.
Nik Abdul Aziz vowed that he would pray for Pakatan Rakyat to take over the Federal Government with two-thirds majority in the next general election so that the constitution could be amended to incorporate hudud and qisas into the Syariah court system.
For hudud and qisas to be adopted at the state level, the Federal Constitution must be amended.
Nik Abdul Aziz, who is Kelantan Mentri Besar, said he was surprised that people could accept the death penalty yet oppose hudud.
“There is no death sentence in hudud. It is just preventative and educational. Our death penalty law is cruel, unlike hudud,” he said.
Asked if there was any chance of PAS making peace with Umno, Nik Abdul Aziz said this would never happen for now.
“For now, I do not think that PAS can patch up with Umno,” he said.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali said people should not pre-empt the issue of hudud as Pakatan needed to have a clear two-thirds majority in Parliament for the country to adopt it.
“By the looks of things, I think neither Barisan Nasional nor Pakatan will have two-thirds in the next election so the issue shall remain (in limbo),” he said, adding that the PAS-led Kedah Government also could not pass hudud law because Pakatan did not have two-thirds majority in its state assembly. – The Star
