PAS Sabah wants rules for syarie’ lawyers

Admission of syarie' lawyers in Sabah open to manipulation and abuse.

KOTA KINABALU: The PAS Sabah Deputy Commissioner III, Hamid Ismail, has alleged that admissions to practice as a syarie’ lawyer in Sabah are based solely on the discretion of the Sabah Syariah High Court or the Sabah Syariah Chief Judge. “All states in Malaysia have rules and regulations except Sabah.”

“This kind of application and approval is improper as it is open to manipulation and abuse. The terms of approval are also inconsistent and keep changing.”

He was calling on the Sabah Government to view seriously the absence of rules and regulations relating to the admission and ethics of syarie’ lawyers in Syariah courts in the state.

Citing his own experience, Hamid said that when he first applied for admission to practice in Syariah courts, the chief registrar of the Syariah court at that time made it compulsory for him to be admitted as a lawyer in the High Court of Borneo in Sabah before he could make such an application.

“Some current syarie’ lawyers have never been admitted to the High Court but their applications were approved,” said Hamid. “This situation differs greatly from the civil courts.”

Admission to the High Court of Borneo, he pointed out, was in strict compliance with the Advocates Ordinance (Sabah Cap. 2).

Any non-compliance of those terms will result in rejection of the application, he stressed. “Further, the High Court will fix a hearing date for the application whereby the Sabah Law Association and the State’s Attorney General’s office have the right to object to an application that breaches the terms or on other grounds.”

The strict terms are imposed to ensure only qualified persons are admitted to practice as lawyers in civil courts in Sabah, he said. “The native courts also have rules for admission of lawyers in their courts.”

Ethics is another issue, he said. “The regulations relating to ethics must be legislated to guide the syarie’ lawyers in serving their clients.”

“A provision relating to the disciplinary board must be included. If not, the public and the Syariah court have no avenue to complain on any unethical conduct by syarie’ lawyers,” said Hamid. “In civil courts, lawyers are bound by the Advocates (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1988.”

The Sabah Attorney General’s office, argued Hamid, needs to act on the issue. “That would also need the Sabah Syariah High Court to co-operate with the Sabah Attorney General, Sabah Muslim Lawyers Association and the Sabah Women Muslim Lawyers.”

Hamid hopes that the Sabah Government, through Ariffin Arif who is the Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister and also the Chairman of the Islamic Religious Council (Muis), “can do something about this issue in order to improve Syariah courts and laws in Sabah”.