This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 20, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Harapan has formed a task force, consisting of three members from each of the partners, to start drafting the coalition’s common policy framework, opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said yesterday.

“We have agreed to do a common policy framework and have set up a task force to look into this,” Wan Azizah said after a coalition council meeting at the opposition leader’s office in Parliament.

Also present were senior leaders from PKR, DAP and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah).

“The task force will consist of three people from each of the parties,” she said.

Wan Azizah also announced the appointment of former deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah as Pakatan Harapan’s chief secretary.

Saifuddin joined PKR last Thursday, citing Putrajaya’s handling of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd controversy and the RM2.6 billion deposited into the prime minister’s personal accounts as reasons for his departure from Umno.

He added that Umno had no will to embark on political change and institutional reform — two causes that he said were close to his heart.

The embattled prime minister has denied taking the money for personal use, while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said the money was a political donation.

PAS is not part of the new coalition, after falling out with DAP, and declaring Amanah “traitors”. — The Malaysian Insider