PH states to follow suit on anti-hopping law, says Saifuddin

 

Saifuddin Nasution Ismail says Pakatan Harapan is committed to having an anti-hopping enactment in the states it controls.

KUALA LUMPUR: State governments led by Pakatan Harapan will table their own anti-hopping enactments once Parliament passes the bill, says PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

Saifuddin (PH-Kulim Bandar Baharu) said the Penang government had passed its own anti-hopping enactment in 2012, and Selangor and Negeri Sembilan would follow suit.

“Our commitment is to enact this law at the state level after approval has been given at the Parliament level,” he told the Dewan Rakyat when debating the constitutional amendment bill to pave the way for the anti-hopping law today.

Saifuddin said there was finally greater clarity as to when the long-awaited anti-hopping bill would be tabled after Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob agreed to calls for a special Dewan Rakyat sitting for this at the end of May.

Describing the issue as a roller-coaster, he thanked Ismail and law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar for upholding Putrajaya’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with PH.

He also said holding a special Dewan Rakyat sitting for the anti-hopping bill in late May was reasonable as it gave time for the special parliamentary select committee (PSC) to study and deliberate on the proposed law.

No vote will be held in the Dewan Rakyat for the constitutional amendment bill today. The bill will instead be referred to this special PSC.

Wan Junaidi earlier said the special PSC will decide on the details for the constitutional amendment and the anti-hopping bill. - FMT