Four take PAS' hudud to court

Four individuals are seeking to stop PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and Parliament from tabling a Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 at any Parliament sitting.

Mansoor Saat, Azira Aziz, Hasbeemaputra Abu Bakar and Hazwany Jamaluddin want the defendants to retract their plan or be prevented from continuing the discussions over the proposed amendments at any of its sessions.

The injunction application, filed last Thursday, is fixed for case management at a High Court here on June 12, said their lawyer Siti Kasim.

Hadi, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, his deputies Datuk Ismail Mohamed Said and Datuk Ronald Kiandee and secretary Datuk Roosme Hamzah have been named defendants.

The plaintiffs also filed a main suit on June 4 naming the same parties as defendants.

In the main lawsuit, they are seeking for a declaration that if the amendments were approved then it would be unlawful, invalid and in contradiction with various Articles of the Federal Constitution, which among others guarantee on liberty of the person, equality and protection against retrospective criminal laws.

Among others, they want to get a declaration that the tabling of the amendment by Hadi at any Parliament sittings would be a breach of the terms of Pakatan Rakyat's common policy framework Buku Jingga agreed
on Dec 19, 2010.

They are also applying to get any related relief from the court.

In an affidavit-in-support of their main suit, their representative Mansoor, 61, said that Hadi had on March 18 given a letter to the Dewan Rakyat secretary to table a private members bill over the
proposed amendment to the said Act at a Parliament sitting.

Mansoor said he believed that the attempts to amend the Act was unconstitutional.

He said any approval by the Dewan Rakyat speaker and his deputies for the Bill to be discussed by parliamentarians and subsequent approval of the proposed law would violate their rights.

He said they would have to face different punishment from other non-Muslim Malaysians under the proposed amendments, reflecting that they will not enjoy equal rights like others.

Besides that, he said that it will have a tendency to effect on the jurisdiction of the high court (superior courts) and syariah court (inferior courts).

He said that certain new provisions were wrong in law, confusing and may be used to upgrade the jurisdiction of the syariah court.

He said he believed that Hadi's action was a breach of promise made to his voters.

Asked by reporters here, Siti said that the main suit has been fixed for case management at a High Court here on June 18.