In a Facebook post, the Puchong MP said while Nazri was correct in saying that religious enactments in each state needed to be revamped to comply with the Bill, the latter should not “run away” from the fact that no states could implement such laws without parliamentary consent.

He said it was clear that any amendment by Parliament to the original Act, such as the proposed amendments in the Bill, would have an effect throughout the peninsula, and not just Kelantan.

Gobind said in essence, Parliament was being called upon to give shariah courts in all peninsular states broad powers in respect of punishments, except death.

“Nazri should focus on the law and not templates in responding to whether or not the shariah Bill applies to Kelantan alone or all states throughout the peninsula.”

He said from Nazri’s statement, it appeared that the Federal Government thought the Bill would apply to Kelantan alone, and this was incorrect.

“In any event, if that be the case, the question is why did the government agree to the tabling of a ‘general’ provision such as Section 2A and not one which made specific reference to Kelantan alone?

“This seems to reflect again the fact that the government is ill-advised over the Bill and this strengthens suspicion that the Attorney-General did not brief the Cabinet either at all or in full over this Bill.”

Gobind, who is DAP’s National Legal Bureau secretary, said this then raised the question as to why the Bill was fast-tracked in the first place.

He said the government should not take any parliamentary Bill lightly, more so those that contained provisions which attracted consequences which were “penal and most severe in nature”.

On May 26, Marang MP and PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 was fast-tracked by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said and tabled for a reading.

However, Hadi requested for the debate on the Bill to be postponed until the next sitting in October.