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    12 August 2012| last updated at 02:02AM

    Salleh urged to 'lecture' Pas leaders

    By SHARANJIT SINGH | sharanjit@nst.com.my

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    HUDUD AGENDA: 'Former lord president had proclaimed country as a secular state'

     GEORGE TOWN: DAP national chairman Karpal Singh has called on former lord president Tun Mohd Salleh Abas to "lecture" Pas leaders on the Islamic state issue and explain to them  why the party cannot go on pursuing its hudud agenda.

    Karpal said Salleh, who was the Pas Jertih assemblyman from 1999 to 2004, should lecture the party on the matter as he had delivered a landmark judgment in 1988 proclaiming Malaysia as a secular state.

    The veteran lawyer reminded Pas that the secular state declaration was made in 1988 when a five-man bench, headed by Salleh, ruled that the country was governed by secular law.

    "It is clear that secular law, and not Islamic law, applies in Malaysia. This controversy between Pas and DAP over the Islamic state issue has been going on for far too long."

    Karpal said here yesterday it was unfortunate that Pas kept on saying that it was going to pursue the agenda.

    He said statements by Pas leaders kept coming despite what had been made clear by party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang that Pas was giving up its Islamic state agenda in favour of a welfare state.

    "The stand taken by Pas now is not only unconstitutional but also defies the Supreme Court decision delivered by Salleh, who is now a Pas member."

    Karpal said DAP would "take on Pas in the interest of the country" if the party insisted on pursuing its agenda.

    Earlier this week, Karpal made clear that the opposition pact must resolve its differences on the hudud issue.

    This followed a comment by Pas secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali that the party would not drop the issue despite the opposition's stand to exclude it from the Buku Jingga (Orange Book).

    Buku Jingga is a document of the opposition's policies, known as the common policy framework.

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