Khalid Samad yet to receive answer from Selangor palace

By MT Webmaster On Jul 21, 2014

(The Rakyat Post) – Shah Alam Member of Parliament Khalid Samad has yet to receive an answer from the Selangor palace on his request to have an audience with the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.

Khalid said, based on past experience, it might take a while for the palace to respond.

“After we (Pakatan Rakyat) won Selangor in the previous general election, we did make a request to see the Sultan. They took some time to get back to us.

“Furthermore, this is the fasting month. The Sultan must have a lot of programmes.

“I’ll wait. The letter was also just sent on Thursday,” he said when contacted by The Rakyat Post.

On Tuesday, Sultan Sharafuddin expressed his disappointment that Khalid had questioned the executive powers of the state’s Islamic Religious Council (Mais) and had also urged Selangor’s Pakatan Rakyat government to abolish the council’s executive powers.

Khalid, in responding to what the Sultan had said, clarified that it was probably due to a misunderstanding.

Following that, Khalid sent a letter to the palace requesting to have an audience with the Sultan in order to explain what he had meant in speaking about Mais.

Meanwhile, Khalid added that to date, PAS had not contacted him to enquire about the matter or taken any action against him.

“There was no problem with the gist of what I had suggested. I had no intention to be rude, much less challenge the powers of the Selangor Sultan.

“After the press conference (where the suggestion was initially made) at Parliament, I had already explained to my party what I truly meant.

“I asked that they relook the executive powers of Mais and make relevant amendments to the enactment.”

Earlier, Khalid admitted that he was prepared to face disciplinary action, even if his party required him to resign.

“I leave it up to the party. If the party thinks that because the Sultan is angry with me, and continues to be angry even after I explain myself, and they ask me to resign, I will,” he had said earlier.