Not Mandatory For Couples To Test For HIV/Aids Before Marriage

The Pahang state government has not imposed a mandatory requirement for couples to test for HIV/Aids before getting married but encourages them to do so, the state assembly was told Monday.

Chairman of the State Health, Social Welfare and Orang Asli Affairs Committee Datuk Ishak Muhamad said the Pahang Health Department offered the test for free to couples wanting to get married.

"We encourage couples about to get married to take the HIV/Aids test. The programme was started in 2004 and has received encouraging response. Last year, 11,076 couples took the test before marriage," he said.
He was replying to a question from Datuk Chan Choon Fah (BN-Teras) who had wanted to know whether the state government planned to make it mandatory for couples to take the HIV-Aids test before getting married.

Chairman of the State Youth, Sports and Unity Committee Datuk Dr Ahmad Shukri Ismail said that a study by the federal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) indicated that firearms used in criminal cases were smuggled from abroad.

He said the study also showed that there were criminals who used fake or toy firearms when committing crime.

"However, cases of crime with the use of firearms were low in Pahang. For the whole of last year, only eight cases of armed robbery were reported," he said when replying to a question from Datuk Redzwan Harun (BN-Kerdau).

Meanwhile, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said not all the stalls at the rest areas of the East Coast Expressway opened for business at the same time because of the low volume of traffic along the highway.

"Requiring all the stalls to be in operation would force the operators to incur losses owing to lack of customers," he said when replying to a question from Datuk Abdul Manan Ismail (BN-Panching).

"At the moment, at least two food stalls and one drinks stall are opened by rotation round the clock according to a schedule," he said, adding that the operating hours of stalls not scheduled to operate round the clock were from 8 am to 10 pm.

"Nevertheless, during festival periods and at weekends, more stalls will be opened to cater to the bigger number of users of the highway," he said.