KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Territories Syariah High Court has fixed March 10 to hear arguments on preliminary objections against Pakatan Rakyat leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's bid to have his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan charged with making a false accusation (qazaf) of sodomy.

Federal Territory Syariah High Court judge Mohd Shukor Sabudin fixed the date during a mention of Anwar's application here today and ordered parties to file the relevant affidavits before the hearing date.

Syarie lawyer Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, representing the three respondents, had on Feb 9 filed three preliminary objections in a bid to strike out Anwar's application.

The three respondents named in Anwar's application are Federal Territory chief syarie prosecutor Shamsuddin Hussain, Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom.

In the preliminary objections filed earlier, the three respondents contend that the Syariah High Court did not have the powers to adjudicate the qazaf application as it was related to a criminal offence and that there had been procedural inconsistencies in initiating the qazaf proceedings.

The trio are also objecting to PKR Kulim Bandar Baharu member of parliament (MP) Zulkifli Nordin, who is also a practising syarie lawyer, representing Anwar on grounds that Zulkifli might be called as a witness in the qazaf case.

Anwar's lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman told the court that she would file Anwar's affidavit in reply to the preliminary objections by Feb 28, adding that she was unable to do so earlier as the objections were filed just before the Chinese New Year holidays.

She also noted that the respondents had yet to file their reply to Anwar's main qazaf application.

Anwar had filed his application on Jan 7 for the Syariah High Court to compel Shamsuddin to use his authority to expedite a qazaf charge, under Section 41 of the Federal Territory Syariah Criminal Act, against Saiful.

The former deputy prime minister is also seeking a court order to restrain Che Mat and Jamil from preventing the chief prosecutor from prosecuting Saiful, or influencing Shamsuddin.

Jamil was named as a respondent in Anwar's application in relation to Jamil's statement in Parliament on Oct 27, 2009, where the latter had said the qazaf charge against Saiful only could proceed after the sodomy charge was heard at the High Court.

Anwar's sodomy trial is currently being heard at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, where he earlier pleaded not guilty to sodomising Saiful at the Desa Damansara condominium in Bukit Damansara here on June 26, 2008.