PAS clerics say don’t want Khalid as MB anymore

PAS clergy wing is rescinding its support for Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, saying it was untenable to back the outgoing Selangor mentri besar as he has been sacked by his party.

The wing’s acting chief, Datuk Ahmad Yakob then blamed the media for highlighting parts of his speech on the subject, which was in the original text but was not read out.

“There is no more way,” Ahmad said while winding down debates in the wing’s annual congress, or muktamar.

“That is not to say that ulamas are still holding on to Khalid. He is no longer relevant.”

The wing stood by party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s decisions in the Selangor mentri besar crisis today, offering three reasons in the name of Islam for doing so.

These included the fact that PKR’s choice for the position is a woman and, therefore, incapable of shouldering the responsibility.

Secondly, Ahmad explained that the wing felt that outgoing mentri besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim must be kept in his post because he was not proven guilty of PKR’s charges, which saw him kicked out of the party.

Thirdly, he expressed the wing’s opposition to the election of Dr Wan Azizah as Kajang assemblyman, saying Islam does not allow any betrayal of the public’s mandate and the waste of resources to hold the by-election.

Ahmad, however, did not verbally utter these justifications during his address this morning, but Malay Mail Online was given clearance by the wing to publish them.

PAS has been at the centre of an ongoing tussle over who should succeed Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as Selangor mentri besar, with Abdul Hadi repeatedly stating his opposition to PKR’s plan to instal its president, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, to the post.

The controversy took another twist when Abdul Hadi reportedly told a ceramah that he had submitted his own list of names to the Sultan of Selangor, proposing two from PKR and one from PAS, though he did not reveal their identities.

His announcement is believed to have circumvented an earlier decision by his own party’s central leadership that submitted the names of Dr Wan Azizah and her deputy, Azmin Ali, for the ruler’s consideration.

Abdul Hadi had then tried to explain his decision against Dr Wan Azizah, openly saying she is “unqualified” to take up the mentri besar post for reasons other than her gender.

The PAS president said the main criteria for an MB was ability and confidence to lead — qualities he claimed the PKR president does not possess.

-malaymail