PAS will honour Pakatan pact and help PKR, promises Mahfuz

(The Star) – PETALING JAYA: PAS will not backstab PKR in Penanti but will honour the Pakatan Rakyat agreement to allocate the seat to PKR, said party information chief Mahfuz Omar.

He said this was despite grassroots members demanding to field a PAS candidate for the state seat.

“We will help PKR in Penanti, as how PKR helped PAS win the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat recently,” he said, adding that he only found out via the media that PAS members in Permatang Pauh threatened not to activate the election machinery if a PKR candidate contested the state seat.

“But PAS will stick to the agreement made before the 2008 general election,” he said.

Penanti seat was left vacant following the resignation of elected representative Moham-mad Fairus Khairuddin.

PKR had announced on Tuesday that Dr Mansor Othman would contest the seat and later announced that Dr Mansor would also be appointed the Deputy Chief Minister 1 if he won the state seat in the May 31 by-election.

Speculation is rife that Pakatan Rakyat leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had forced Mohammad Fairus to quit to pave the way for Dr Mansor to play a lead role in the state administration.

On Permatang Pauh PAS’ threat to shut down its election machinery, Mahfuz said it would not adversely affect the Pakatan Rakyat by-election campaign.

“We move our machinery on a national level. It will be coordinated by PAS national elections director Datuk Mustafa Ali,” he said.

Mustafa had said that PAS would not grab the seat from PKR.

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim had denied that the Permatang Pauh PAS division had wanted to pull out from the Penanti by-election campaign, citing it as just a rumour.

Speaking to reporters after chairing the state exco meeting yesterday, he aid Anwar, Lim Guan Eng (DAP secretary-general), Lim Kit Siang (DAP adviser) and Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (PAS president) had agreed that the Penanti seat be contested under the PKR flag.