Meanwhile, PAS central committee member Shahidan Kassim said that PAS remains a component party of PN for now despite the Islamist party ending its political alliance with Bersatu.
Shahidan – a Member of Parliament for Arau and a former federal minister – said that Abdul Hadi’s statement on ending its cooperation with Bersatu did not touch on PN.
“So, our existing position (in PN) remains,” he was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.
Separately, PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari sidestepped questions on what the decision would mean for the opposition coalition.
“I don’t want to comment on that for now,” he reportedly said.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Fadhli said that the positions of PAS and Bersatu within PN would be managed in accordance with the coalition’s constitution and “through appropriate channels”.
“Following yesterday’s decision, it is clear that PAS and Bersatu can no longer remain under the same umbrella,” he said.
Last month, Abdul Hadi said his Islamist party was reassessing its ties with Bersatu amid calls for PAS to revive its Muafakat Nasional alliance with the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). UMNO is a component party within the Barisan National coalition and part of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government.
Just last week, Abdul Hadi said that PAS and UMNO leaders had held a “regular meeting”, but UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi stressed that the leaders involved did not discuss reviving the defunct Muafakat Nasional alliance.
At its general assembly earlier this year, UMNO had said that it will form a “unity committee” in a bid to reunite the country’s Malays politically. Zahid had said then that the move would facilitate the return of former members and political rivals – whether individually or en bloc – as part of a broader mission to reposition UMNO as the “grand home for the Malays”.
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