House of Representatives on Thursday confirmed that there was a proposal to amend the 1999 Constitution for the purpose of amending the criminal aspect of the Sharia Act before it.
Abdulrazak Namdas, chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, who gave the clarification in response to public outcry, however, said the proposal had been referred to the Special Committee on Constitution Review, which would determine whether the proposal should be considered as a bill or not.
“On this issue of the proposal people are calling the Sharia Bill, a lot of people came to my office today. I want to make clarifications.
“Please gentlemen, we don’t have a bill in the House of Representatives called the Sharia bill. What we have is that a member on the floor of the House made a proposal to amend the Constitution and this was referred to the Special Committee on Constitution Review of which I’m a member.
“Now, it actually talks about trying to amend a certain section of the Sharia. As it is, it is been referred to a committee. And if the committee decides that this is not worth a bill, it will not even come back to the House,” Namdas said.
Namdas, who allayed the fear of the general public, said the process for the amendment of the Constitution required the approval of two-thirds of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.
“Once the committee decides on it that it is, it will come on the floor of the House as a bill. And it’s at that time that we will now say there is a bill before the House, which will require a vote of two-third, not only here but all the State Houses of Assembly.
“So, it is not correct to say that a Sharia bill has passed second reading in the House of Representatives. It has not. It is a proposal seeking to amend the criminal aspect of the Sharia law, it can only be done through constitution amendment,” he said.
The lawmaker explained that there were lot of constitution amendment proposals already referred to the special committee, adding that at the appropriate time, the fate of the proposed amendment will be made known to the public though the media.
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