‘Why is Umno fielding a tainted candidate?’

PAS wants Umno to explain its decision to field Azahar Ibrahim who was allegedly found guilty in land scam.

PETALING JAYA: Did Umno know about the Muar High Court ruling in 2008 against Tenang candidate Azahar Ibrahim over a land scam in Jabi, Segamat?

In which case why was it prepared to ‘disappoint its members by fielding a tainted’ character in the by-election? These were among the many questions posed by PAS youth today.

Demanding that Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin explain its decision, PAS youth information chief Suhaizan Kaiat said: “The Muar High Court had ruled in favour of the complainant, Mansor Mohamed.

“Azahar was eventually tranferred out to Renggit land office after being demoted. Why was he demoted and why is Umno prepared to disappoint its members by fielding a tainted candidate?

Suhaizan said Mansor, who was the previous owner the land in Jabi, said his property was auctioned off in 2003 due to Azahar’s negligence in his capacity as the assistant district officer then.

The disgruntled land owner susbsequently filed a legal suit against Azahar in 2004 and the judge ruled in favour of Mansor with costs.

Vile scheme

Suhaizan also demanded that Muhyiddin explain why his electoral candidate failed to inform Mansor of the auction which was against procedure.

“Why didn’t Azahar inform Mansor of the auction? Was there a vile scheme between Azahar, the auctioneer and the bidder to get the land sold?

“And why was the property sold off for RM70,000 which was lower than its market price then?

“The land was worth about RM116,000 at that time. Worse, why was there only one bidder present during the the auction?” he asked.

Suhaizan also asked why Azahar had failed to call off the aution when Mansor had in fact paid up RM10,000, which was half of his outstanding balance to the bank, a day before the scheduled auction.

“After making his payment Mansor then informed Azahar about it and pleaded to him to call off the auction, but it fell on deaf ears,” said Suhaizan.

Meanwhile Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman had reportedly refuted PAS’ allegations claiming that “Azahar was not involved the suit.”

Ghani instead accused PAS of spreading lies to discredit Azahar.

“He was merely a witness. He was never involved in any dispute,” Ghani had said. - FMT