Dr M’s position as PM not affected by Anwar’s decision, says PKR sec-gen

(MMO) – PKR president-elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s decision to return to Parliament does not in any way bind or affect Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as he continues to lead the country as prime minister, said PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

“In making this decision, we are not giving a time frame to Tun Dr Mahathir to carry out his job as prime minister,” he told a special media conference here today.

It was held to announce that Anwar would contest in the Port Dickson parliamentary constituency to prepare and pave the way for him take over the nation’s leadership.

At the media conference, Port Dickson MP Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah announced that he was vacating his seat to give way to Anwar to eventually take over as the nation’s eighth premier.

According to Saifuddin Nasution, Anwar himself had always emphasised that it was important to continue supporting Dr Mahathir’s leadership now.

“Datuk Seri Anwar’s has always said that now is the time for the PKR leadership to give full backing and support to Tun Dr Mahathir as prime minister,” he said.

Saifuddin Nasution added that the decision in not binding Dr Mahathir to a time frame in becoming prime minister was also the consensus of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

“When we made the decision, there was no period binding Dr Mahathir tenure as prime minister and as I mentioned earlier, even when the PH consensus was made, there was no binding period.”

Saifuddin Nasution said Anwar had also repeatedly said that Dr Mahathir would continue to have PKR’s support for him to continue leading the country as prime minister.

He also said that PKR leaders unanimously accepted Anwar’s stand to contest in the Port Dickson parliamentary seat, adding that he had also met PH component party leaders who would assist in the by-election.