PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail today stressed that the report of an alleged statutory declaration (SD) by MPs in support of Dr Mahathir Mohammad as prime minister is nothing more than a rumour.
In fact, he labelled the claim, made by whistleblower site Sarawak Report, as just politics.
“I just read the report yesterday, and it (the SD) is not in our knowledge.
“The SD is just a rumour as far as I know,” he said to reporters today. Saifuddin, who is the domestic trade and consumer affairs minister, had attended a dialogue at his ministry's headquarters in Putrajaya today on the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak
Quoting a source, Sarawak Report had recently claimed lawmakers from both the opposition and federal government had joined forces to sign an SD pledging support for Mahathir to complete a full term as premier.
The group allegedly included MPs from Umno, PAS and Bersatu as well as MPs aligned to Azmin Ali from PKR. The report said they were “pressured to fly in from all corners to Kuala Lumpur” to sign the document.
Saifuddin said that he himself had never been approached by any party to sign such an SD.
“There is no confirmation (about the SD) [...] no one has approached me. As far as I have checked, no one,” he added.
The Pakatan Harapan presidential council will meet tomorrow, he added, without elaborating if the topic of the SD will be discussed.
If true, the SD would contravene an earlier agreement among Harapan component parties for Anwar to succeed Mahathir before the next general election.
Anwar, himself, yesterday said he had “not been officially informed”.
Since Harapan took over as government in 2018, speculation has been over whether Mahathir would actually hand over the reins of the premiership to his long-time rival turned coalition partner.
Several quarters from both sides of the political divide have called for Mahathir to complete a full term as prime minister while others want him to honour the handover agreement.
Both Anwar and Mahathir, meanwhile, have repeatedly assured that the transfer of power pact would be honoured though no date has been set.
On the issue of PKR vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin’s disciplinary hearing, Saifuddin said he would leave the matter to the party's disciplinary board.
Disciplinary board chairperson Ahmad Kasim had yesterday rejected Zuraida’s request for a suspension of the hearing against her and instead fixed Feb 20 for her to attend.
Despite this, an aide claimed the housing and local government minister had verbally agreed with a disciplinary board staff member for her disciplinary board hearing to be held on Feb 25 and that the ultimatum issued by board chairperson Ahmad Kasim did not arise.
“That falls within the scope of power of the disciplinary board. I will not intervene,” Saifuddin said.
The hearing was set after Zuraida was issued a show-cause letter last month over several matters concerning remarks she made about Anwar. -Mkini
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