Sandakan (The Star/ANN) - The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) has no right to force hudud laws on non-Muslims, Liberal Democratic Party president Datuk V.K. Liew said.
He said PAS cannot pursue its hudud agenda as it was against the Constitution.
"While we move toward a more open democracy, PAS is going backward by putting forward its hudud agenda," he said at the 22nd LDP congress which was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said the Constitution does not have a provision for such laws.
"We practise a system of Parliamentary democracy based on the Federal Constitution that states Islam is the official religion.
"But at the same time, it allows others to freely practise their respective religions," he said.
In this regard, he said PAS had no right to force non-Muslims to accept hudud laws, "notwithstanding its argument that it would only be applicable to Muslims".
Liew also called for solutions to Sabah's illegal immigrant problem and the need to address concerns over groups issuing "Malaysian identity cards" to non-citizens.
He said talk about non-Malaysians receving such identity documents would affect the sovereignty of the nation.
In Islamic law or Sharia, hudud usually refers to the class of punishments that are fixed for certain crimes that are considered to be "claims of God". They include theft, fornication, consumption of alcohol and apostasy.
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