No news of palace meet yet
Hassan: Expected to meet Sultan soon
The Selangor PAS chief and State Exco for Islamic Affairs may have to face the Sultan for exceeding his powers by unilaterally empowering mosque officials to arrest Muslims caught drinking alcohol in public without first consulting the Sultan.
When met at his office yesterday, Hassan declined comment.
However, State Secretariat sources confirmed that the palace has yet to issue any date on Hassan’s audience with the Sultan.
“We don’t know when the meeting will take place, or if there will be a meeting. We have yet to receive any order from the palace on this matter. Right now, we are just waiting,” said the source.
In our front-page report yesterday, we highlighted the Sultan’s displeasure with Hassan for bypassing the State Islamic Ruler’s authority on the beer issue, as well as empowering mosque officials to arrest alcohol-drinking Muslims.
The message from the palace on the Sultan’s displeasure is believed to have been conveyed through Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who met the Sultan last Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Hassan courted controversy when he backed an illegal move by the Shah Alam City Council to seize beer from a 7-Eleven outlet and subsequently called for beer and alcohol to be banned in Muslim-majority areas.
The matter was laid to rest when Khalid successfully called on retail outlets to practise self-regulation.
However, another controversy broke out last week when Hassan raised the ire of his executive council colleagues with the announcement to empower mosque officials, including the imam and bilal, to arrest Muslims for drinking beer and alcohol in public, without a warrant, under the Syariah Criminal Enactment 1995.
Currently, the Selangor government is in the midst of making plans to visit Kelantan to see how beer sales are regulated in the predominantly Muslim State. The delegation will be headed by Shah Alam mayor Mazalan Md Noor.
Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said the State’s regulation of beer sales to non-Muslims was enforced and regulated according to provisions in the syariah. The regulation was enforced soon after PAS took control of the State in 1990.
source : www.mmail.com.my
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