PAS today insisted it had nothing to do with an alleged attempt yesterday to take down the Selangor government led by Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.

This came about after Umno president Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that former Selangor menteri besar Muhammad Taib was leaving PKR to return to Umno.

The Malaysian Insight reported earlier today that Muhammad was to bring with him to Umno eight Selangor assemblymen from PKR.

The eight PKR assemblymen, with Umno’s 12 and PAS’ 13 state representatives, along with former Selangor menteri besar Khalid Ibrahim, would add up to 34 seats out of the total 56 seats in Selangor – enough for the bloc to take over the state government.

But the plan fell through after the intervention of powerful stakeholders in the state. Selangor PAS election director Roslan Shahir Mohd Shahir denied the Islamist party was part of the plot.

“I did not hear anything about it. If there was indeed such a plan, surely PAS leaders would have heard something about it,” Roslan told The Malaysian Insight.

“As election director, I would have heard about it. The PAS state commissioner Sallehen Mukhyi also knows nothing about it

“We have just come back with PAS central leaders from the Hari Malaysia celebration in Sandakan. Nobody knows anything about it,” said Roslan, who is also the party deputy information chief.

He said speculation was common in politics and PAS had many times been dragged into such supposed plots, only to be proven innocent in the end.

The plot is similar to what befell Perak in 2009 when the Pakatan Rakyat government fell to Barisan Nasional, following the defection of three assemblymen.

Roslan said Selangor PAS had declared that it would not be party to any undemocratic attempt to remove the current state government, as the people’s mandate must be respected.

The Selangor government is made up of PKR, DAP and PAS. 

“Because we honour the people’s decision in the 13th general election, we are still together in the state administration even though PAS no longer has political cooperation with PKR and DAP,” said Roslan, who is also a Subang Jaya municipal councillor.

PAS and DAP ended ties in 2015 over the hudud issue. In May, PAS also called it quits with PKR.

The Islamist party has since declared it will meet its former partners and Barisan Nasional in three-cornered fights in the coming polls. – September 18, 2017.