Hadi: Pakatan will implement hudud

 

(NST) – Hudud will be implemented if Pakatan Rakyat comes to power but it will only be for Muslims, while non-Muslims will be given an option whether they want to be subjected to the law, said Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

However, he said, if they won in Terengganu, the implementation of hudud in the state would be deferred until unemployment and minimum wage problems were settled.

“We will implement it on Muslims first. Figh (Islamic jurisprudence) books provided for it to be implemented on Muslims, while non-Muslims be given an option (whether to follow), as gazetted in the Syariah Criminal Law of Kelantan and Terengganu (and) it was formulated and passed by the state assembly.”

Hadi was responding to a question on whether hudud would be implemented if Pakatan came to power as he had mentioned in his ceramah that DAP had voiced its opposition to it. He was speaking after a ceramah session here on Tuesday.

However, he declined to say where DAP stood on the issue and said the question should be addressed to DAP leaders.

He added hudud would not be implemented in Terengganu until poverty, unemployment and the minimum wage were settled.

“First things first. We will give priority to poverty eradication. Hudud cannot be implemented before the implementation of a minimum wage.

“If someone steals because his salary is not enough, we cannot implement hudud (on him) because the conditions were not met.”

He said Pas had discussed hudud with all parties, including Umno, since the 1970s.

“When Pas was in Barisan Nasional, there was a national seminar where the late Prof Ahmad Ibrahim presented a paper. Tun Salleh Abas also presented a paper.”

Ahmad was the Universiti Malaya Law Fculty dean in the 1970s and later became the dean of International Islamic University Law faculty. Salleh was a former Lord President of the Federal Court of Malaysia.