Khalid Samad will abide by PAS decision, including to resign

(Bernama) – Shah Alam member of Parliament Khalid Samad will abide by any decision to be made by PAS including resigning, if the Sultan of Selangor was still angry with his explanation on the suggestion to abolish the executive powers of the Selangor State Islamic Council (MAIS).

Khalid said so far, PAS had asked him to explain his suggestion but he had yet to be called by the party leadership.

“I leave it to the party, if it feels the Sultan continues to be angry even after I have explained, and PAS says I should resign for the good of the party, then I will resign.

“I am here because the party appointed me as a candidate….for as long as it is good for the party, I will continue to serve and hope that any misunderstanding and misinformation could be cleared,” he told reporters here Thursday.

Khalid, who is also PAS Selangor Deputy Commissioner III, said the application letter for an audience with Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah had been sent to the palace yesterday to give him the opportunity to clear the situation, but he was still waiting for a response from the palace.

Khalid’s suggestion on June 18 had incurred the wrath of the Sultan who on Tuesday described him as rude, ignorant and showed his opposition to the Sultan’s rule as head of Islamic affairs in Selangor.

“I apologise if what I said or wrote gave such an impression to His Highness. I had no intention at all to be rude or to question the rule of the Sultan,” he said.

However, Khalid said he was still confused about the Sultan’s anger because his suggestion was solely to save the Sultan’s image as the policies practised by MAIS often created problems.

He said MAIS’ policies had to be constantly improved according to the times although existing laws were not out-of-date.

“I acknowledge MAIS’ role in religion…the suggestion was made because there were always problems in implementation,” he said.

Khalid said although MAIS was not fond of him, his suggestion was made to improve the implementation system so as not to create problems in the future.