Haron hits out at critics of PAS ulama

PAS deputy spiritual leader Datuk Haron Din has hit out at the group's critics within and outside the party. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, September 17, 2014.

PAS’s influential deputy spiritual leader and icon of its conservative faction, Datuk Haron Din, has hit out at the group's critics within and outside the party in a further sign that a leadership crisis is deepening in the 60-year old Islamist party.

Haron also defended party president Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang's decisions in the Selangor menteri besar crisis which attracted much criticism from the party's central committee and the party's allies PKR and DAP.

Haron and the party's powerful Muslim scholars council, the Syura council, had backed Hadi's decision not to nominate PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to replace Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Hadi's decision and the ulama's stand have driven a rift within the party as its elected central committee had nominated Wan Azizah and PKR deputy president Azmin Ali as menteri besar candidates.

MORE TO COME

- TMI