KUALA LUMPUR: PAS wants Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to apologise for his remarks that the police are going to take action against the Islamist party’s voluntary corps, Unit Amal.

Its Youth chief Suhaizan Kayat  said the group is a welfare body operating under the wing which is tasked to handle welfare and humanitarian aid, including floods and fire, to those in need.

“If demonstrations are allowed under the Constitution, then we are taking care of the welfare of those who want to demonstrate.

“We also ensure traffic control and security during PAS ceramah events,” he said when contacted yesterday.

He demanded Zahid to tender an open apology for his remark about the corps which have operated for the last 20 years.

“I don’t understand why the government wants to take action against us. In all these years, we have at times, worked with the police and government agencies, and now suddenly they want to find fault with us,” he said.

He said this in response to Ahmad Zahid’s statement yesterday that the police would likely act against Unit Amal as they had done with Penang Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS).

The Home Minister said it would be a matter of time before police acted against the group.

“I believe so. In time,” he had said.

PPS was declared illegal by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar after the Registrar of Societies had stated that the anti-crime voluntary group was not a legal organisation as it had not been registered. — The Malaysian Insider


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 2, 2014.