KUALA LUMPUR – The government intends to pick up where the previous administration left off on the controversial Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 amendment bill, better known as RUU355.
In a written parliamentary reply dated yesterday, Religious Affairs Minister Senator Datuk Mohd Na’im Mokhtar said the proposed amendments to the law will be tabled in Parliament in due time, aimed at empowering the shariah courts.
It will be done concurrently with the tabling of another bill to introduce a brand new act, proposed as the Federal Territories Shariah Courts Act.
Na’im, however, stopped short of confirming in which parliamentary sitting these would be tabled.
“Both bills will be presented together in Parliament after obtaining the approval of the cabinet, to ensure our goal of empowering the shariah courts can be realised.”
The minister in the prime minister’s department was responding to a question from Hassan Saad (Baling-PN) on the government’s timeline for the tabling of RUU 355.
Last week, during his winding-up speech for the Budget 2023 at the policy stage, Na’im had said that his ministry was in the midst of preparing a cabinet paper to obtain the government’s approval for the bill to be presented in Parliament.
He had also noted then that the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 has not been amended over 30 years.
This was in response to a question raised by Datuk Ahmad Marzuk Shaary (Pengkalan Chepa-PN) on the status of the bill, with the PAS lawmaker noting that the proposed amendment to the law was just one step away from being tabled in Parliament by the previous government, before the House was dissolved.
RUU355 was a private member’s bill brought by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in 2016 to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 to give the law greater enforcement power.
He had proposed that the maximum punishment for shariah criminal offences – currently set at three years’ imprisonment, a RM5,000 fine, and six strokes of the whip – be increased significantly to 30 years in prison, RM100,000 fine, and 100 lashes.
The bill, although tabled, has never been debated in the Dewan Rakyat. – The Vibes, March 17, 2023
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