Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang turned up at the Pakatan Rakyat presidential council meeting yesterday afternoon, after months of absence from the coalition’s top body. Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his wife PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng also attended the meeting at the PAS headquarters.

Abdul Hadi had earlier chaired the party’s central committee meeting. 

Guan Eng had earlier insisted that the meeting would not proceed if Abdul Hadi did not turn up, based on a decision by the DAP’s central executive committee. Earlier, PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali confirmed Abdul Hadi’s attendance. He said yesterday’s meeting would focus on strengthening the coalition and the next course of action if Anwar fails to get his sodomy conviction overturned by the Federal Court.

Pakatan leaders agreed to convene two meetings to resolve outstanding issues. Among the major issues that have caused uncertainty about the future of the coalition are Kelantan’s plan to table the hudud law enactment and DAP’s support for local council elections. 

The first meeting will be held tomorrow after the Federal Court makes its decision on Anwar’s appeal. This meeting will address the issue of who will succeed him as leader of the coalition should his conviction be upheld.

The second meeting, for which the date has not been determined, will be convened to resolve issues related to PAS-led Kelantan’s plan to amend the Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 to allow it to implement hudud, and the DAP’s move to push for local council elections.

The agenda of the PAS central committee meeting included the approval of new members, party financial report and upcoming party assembly. Mustafa said issues such as yesterday morning’s so-called “revelation” of a conspiracy to unseat Abdul Hadi and local council elections were not mentioned. 

He was referring to a protest at the party headquarters yesterday morning, when a PAS faction accused party election director Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli of masterminding a plot to unseat Abdul Hadi. The protesters, led by PAS Kuantan youth chief Noorzazilafadli Ibrahim, demanded that Mohd Hatta quit his party posts.

Mohd Hatta has been closely identified with the “Erdogan” or progressive group within the party leadership. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 9, 2015.

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