PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang has clarified that the invitation to join the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim-led unity government was not made recently.
Rather, the Islamic party’s president said that the invitation was made soon after the 15th General Election (GE15).
Hadi’s clarification came after his “bombshell” on Saturday (May 27) where he claimed “certain people” had repeatedly approached him about joining the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim-led unity government.
However, he claimed the offer would not benefit PAS and that any offer to join the government should see PAS being given a dominant role as, of all parties, it had the most number of parliamentary seats.
“An offer to join the government is made after the election. No offer was extended recently,” he said in a news conference after the Terengganu International Summit 2023 today (June 1).
The Marang MP was responding to the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) parties’ denial of such an offer, which made political headlines this week and added that PAS will not accept the offer at all and will remain loyal to Perikatan Nasional (PN).
“We rejected the offer of cooperation with the current government, instead we will continue to empower PN and invite other parties to join us because we are increasingly gaining a place in the hearts of the people,” he said.
Previously, Hadi claimed that “several people” contacted him regarding on a spot in the unity government.
According to the vice chairman of PN, the offer arose because PH, notably PKR, knew that its position was weak and not to mention, the party’s number of Malay seats was less than that of PAS.
However, Anwar reiterated on Tuesday (May 30) that neither he nor any government leader had made such an offer.
On Sunday (May 28) Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also denied the claim and told Hadi to “stop daydreaming”. – June 1, 2023
Main pic credit: Dr. Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar
