Nazri: PAS has failed to make Kelantan Islamic, hence Hadi's bill

PAS wants stiffer punishments for Kelantan because they have failed to make the state a model Islamic state, said an Umno leader.

Umno supreme council member Nazri Abdul Aziz said if they had succeeded, they would not need heavier punishments such as the hudud laws that the Kelantan government has been pushing for.

"PAS has failed to make Kelantan an Islamic state, therefore they need heavier punishments (for crime).

"When (PAS president) Abdul Hadi Awang was Terengganu menteri besar, he also wanted to change (the laws to include stiffer punishments, hudud).

"That means PAS has failed. If they had succeeded, they would reduce six strokes (of the cane) to zero strokes," said the outspoken Umno minister.

"If PAS had succeeded, I believe everyone in the state would observe fasting (during Ramadan), there would be no need to enforce it. So they have failed in Kelantan," he said.

He was speaking to the media after officiating the convocation ceremony of Aswara in Kuala Lumpur.

Nazri was replying a question about Umno and PAS' preparations for the next general election, said to be looming.

Nazri said Umno was compelled to help PAS with their hudud laws because the latter had failed.

"Therefore Umno has had to help them, because they have failed.

"Look at Umno, we have no need to increase (punishments in our states)," said Nazri.

As Parliament resumed this sitting, the issue of Hadi's Private Member's Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355) to remove obstacles to Kelantan's hudud law has erupted once more.

The bill was tabled last year after Kelantan's assembly comprising PAS and Umno assemblypersons and a single PKR assemblyperson unanimously passed the state's hudud enactment.

[More to follow]

-Mkini