PARLIAMENT PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has tabled an amended version of his motion, which seeks to strengthen the syariah courts.

However, he also asked the House to allow him to elaborate on his motion during the next Dewan Rakyat session in March as today was the last day of the current session.

"Even though this bill is specific to Muslims, there is still a lot of questions and debate on it.

"Therefore I ask to elaborate on this in the next session," Hadi said, to which speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia agreed. 

Mujahid Yusof Rawa (Amanah-Parit Buntar) and Khalid Samad (Amanah-Shah Alam) had called for a debate to be held today to clear the air and avoid divisive arguments among the public.

"I went through thugs to get here, I want to debate this today," Khalid said, referring to the ambush on him earlier today.

Pandikar did not entertain these requests and the House moved on to other business.

The amended motion is on a bill that seeks to raise the present punishment cap to 30 years’ jail, RM100,000 fine and 100 strokes of the whip.

The current syariah punishment cap is three years’ imprisonment, RM5,000 fine and six strokes of the whip.

In a statement later today, the minister in charge of parliamentary affairs Azalina Othman Said explained that Hadi’s motion has yet to gone through its first reading.

She explained that Pandikar had allowed Hadi’s amended motion to be read, and then for the motion to be postponed.

“This means that the Marang MP’s motion has yet to be read for the first time. Standing Order 29 allows a private member’s bill to be amended.

“A private member’s bill is different from a government bill, in that it is considered to have gone through the first reading after a minister has given a one-day notice, and then read by the Dewan Rakyat secretary in the house,” Azalina said.

She urged MPs to respect the speaker’s rulings as well as the Dewan Rakyat’s standing orders.

This is to ensure that the lower house’s sessions are run smoothly, she added.