Hadi’s aide personally handed letter to palace
(The Star) – PAS leaders are in the dark over their president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s (pic) letter handed to the palace nominating three of the party’s exco members for the Selangor Mentri Besar’s post.
Several senior leaders denied knowledge of Hadi’s letter nominating the three, a move that defies Pakatan Rakyat’s original stance of naming PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail for the job.
According to state sources, the letter was hand delivered by an aide of Hadi before the Sept 3 deadline which the palace gave for the submission of “more than two names” by each of three Pakatan parties.
The latest twist in the Selangor Mentri Besar came as PKR and DAP stuck to submitting only the name of PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail while PAS has initially agreed to having Dr Wan Azizah and PKR deputy president Azmin Ali as their candidates.
However, as the crisis dragged on it became clear that Hadi refused to agree to only naming Dr Wan Azizah after Azmin declined PAS’ nomination.
Since then, PAS leaders have been making contradictory statements over the party’s candidates until word emerged that Hadi had nominated three PAS candidates.
The three are Selangor PAS commissioner and Cempaka assemblyman Iskandar Samad, Sijangkang assemblyman Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi and Sabak assemblyman Sallehen Mukhyi.
It remains uncertain if Hadi had consulted the PAS syura council before sending the letter.
Iskandar said he did not know whether to believe the report or not.
“Selangor PAS is unaware of this latest development, and never submitted the names of the three exco members to the party’s leadership for consideration,” he said.
Sallehen told The Star Online he had no knowledge of the letter.
“No, it is not true. No, no,” he said when contacted.
PAS central working committee member Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad also claimed to have knowledge of the letter.
“News to us too…must assume not true,” he said in a Twitter posting responding to the report published by The Star Online.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali denied that the party had submitted the names of its three exco members to the Palace for consideration.
“The report is not true because the suggestion to submit the three names has been scrapped earlier on,” he told an online news portal.
The news portal quoted Mustafa as confirming that the party had indeed submitted more than two names for the MB post, but declined to say who they were.
