Syariah lawyers want govt to fulfil pledge to enact Syariah Legal Profession Act

KUALA LUMPUR: The Syariah Lawyers Association of Malaysia is urging the government to enact the Syariah Legal Profession Act, after nearly six years of promising to do so.

Its president Musa Awang, in a press conference today, said the enactment of the act was a request made collectively in 2010 by the group of over 3,000 practising syariah lawyers, legal trainees in the chambers, and even students studying Syariah law inside and outside the country.

“In July 2011, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his speech during the 13th Malaysia Syariah Practitioners Conference and 2nd Syariah Lawyer Convention stressed that the act would be enacted as soon as possible.

“In October the same year, the then Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim at the Dewan Rakyat repeated and supported the same statement, that is the need to enact the Syariah Legal Profession Act,” he said.

The necessity of the act, Musa explained, was that syariah lawyers’ practices must be regulated under one act as there are currently different procedures for the group according to each state in Malaysia.

The difference in procedures could give way to unauthorised syariah lawyers, or those currently under disciplinary action, to practice and give legal counsel to whomever they like under the pretense that they were authentic syariah lawyers.

“We have prepared a draft of the act and forwarded it to the relevant national legal departments, JAKIM (the Islamic Development Department) and ministries.

“Our last effort was following up with the progress of the act last May to Datuk Seri Azalina (Othman) and Wanita Umno. They, as had all others before, said they were not aware of the status of the act.”