Instructions to speed up the motion to table PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's Private Member's Bill in Dewan Rakyat came from majority leader Prime Minister Naijb Abdul Razak and chief whip, Deputy Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said revealed this when asked if she had cabinet approval before she moved the motion to bump up Hadi's Bill from the bottom of the queue to the top of House business on May 26.
"In my job as minister in charge of parliament, I report to the leader of the majority, who is the prime minister, and I report to the chief whip, who is the deputy PM.
“So the instructions I got to push it (motion to table Hadi's Bill) from number 15 to number one would definitely be (from) the leader of the majority and chief whip because that is the procedural requirement for Parliament," she said at a press conference in Sungai Besar today.
Azalina explained that she got the directive from the prime minister when she reported to him after she was informed by the Dewan Rakyat speaker that the minister in charge of religion, Jamil Khir Baharom, had written to inform the House that the government had no objection to a debate on the bill.
"I just read Standing Order 14 to allow (it to be moved) from number 15 to go to number one," related Azalina, arguing that this action was not fast-tracking as portrayed by some, adding that she was just moving up the motion.
"The speaker had informed us that there was a request being made, whereby Jamir Khir informed the speaker that there was no objection, so of course automatically my role came in. There was no such thing of fast tracking," she insisted.
Azalina however appeared to distance herself from the content of Hadi's Bill and the government’s decision to allow it to be tabled, saying that she was only involved in parliamentary procedures.
"My role does not relate to the content of the motion. I oversee regulations, so I only take care of the procedure … because the motion was no 15 and it has to go under no 1 in between government motions.
"Under Standing Order 14, a member of a cabinet or minister must stand up and read out the consent to the speaker. I am in charge of the technicality, not the content, of the motion.”
Nothing to do with me
She explained the person in charge of responding to the content of motion and the decision to allow the debate on the bill is Jamir Khir, and that he had already issued a media statement on the matter.
"So this has nothing to do with the minister in charge of parliament," she reiterated.
On May 26, the final day of last month’s Dewan Rakyat proceedings, the government moved up the motion asking the House for leave to table Hadi's Bill which seeks to allow the syariah courts to have wider leeway in meting out punishments.
The motion was bumped from last place at number 15 on the day's Order Paper to the top of the list.This led observers to note that the government was fast tracking the bill, formally named Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) 2016 Bill, which sought to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act, also known as Act 355.
Critics, including from the BN, also queried if Azalina had cabinet clearance before she tabled the motion to bump up the motion on Hadi's Bill.
The bill is also referred to as the Hudud Bill, as its passage will allow the implementation of Islamic penal code in Kelantan, where a state enactment to that effect is already in place though hobbled by sentencing restrictions on syariah courts by federal laws.
Hadi however had asked for the debate on his bill to be postponed to the next parliamentary sitting in October. --Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.