Former NST chief Kalimullah denies ties with RPK

(The Star) – Media personality Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan has denied reports in blogs which claimed that he had met Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in London on Nov 7 last year.

He added that he was in Malaysia on that particular day.

Kalimullah also denied that he had any form of relationship with Malaysia Today’s Raja Petra Kamarudin or that he had funded him or harboured him in his flat in London.

“It’s public knowledge that Raja Petra has over the years made numerous defamatory, slanderous and totally baseless allegations against my family, myself and my close friends such as former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

“My flat has only been used by my family. Raja Petra has never stayed in my apartment.

“I don’t know where he stays and neither it is my concern — be it Brisbane, Manchester, London or Poland,” he said in a statement Thursday.

Kalimullah said also said that he had nothing to do with the news portals Malaysiakini or The Malaysian Insider.

“I was not involved in setting up these portals and neither do I have any control, influence, equity or in funding these organisations,” he added.

Kalimullah said Umno supreme council member Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi had made baseless allegations against him in these matters.

Kalimullah was responding to Mohd Puad’s statement on Wednesday calling for Anwar to “explain” whether a meeting took place between the PKR adviser and Kalimullah.

Mohd Puad said the matter, which was reported in blogs, had become a matter of public concern as it involved a media player.

Kalimullah resigned as the deputy chairman of The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd (NSTP) in 2008 after joining it as group editor-in-chief in 2004.