TWENTY PKR central committee members have rejected the sacking of Bera division leader Zakaria Abdul Hamid, citing a flawed process and failure to meet  principles of justice.

In a memorandum to the party disciplinary board, they said the sacking of Zakaria, who is also a member of the committee, was illegal.

“We, as the elected central committee members for 2018-2021, irrevocably reject Zakaria’s sacking as announced by the disciplinary board chairman Ahmad Kasim,” the memorandum read.

“We, who represent the majority of the central committee members elected by party members, also urge the party president to apologise for this hasty decision which clearly did not get the support of two-thirds of the central committee members.”

Deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali and vice-presidents Zuraida Kamaruddin and Tian Chua were among those who signed the memorandum.

The leaders said the disciplinary board had recommended that Zakaria be issued with a show cause letter, not his marching orders.

The leaders pointed out that the 20 signatories to the memorandum represented the majority of the central committee members elected by party members.

“The hasty decision of the disciplinary board clearly did not get the support of two-thirds of the central committee members.

“As such, the decision to sack Zakaria was flawed and did not meet the principles of justice in bypassing due process.

“Zakaria remains a legitimate central committee member to this day,” the memorandum said.

The leaders also demanded that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim apologise for making the wrong decision.

Last Sunday, PKR announced that Zakaria and Ismail Duhladi, an ordinary member in Pahang, were stripped of their party membership following corruption allegations brought against them by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

PKR disciplinary board chairman Ahmad Kassim said the party had received a letter from MACC dated October 23 on the graft allegedly perpetrated by the two during last year’s party elections.

MACC later admitted, however, that it had made a mistake in advising PKR to take disciplinary action against two of its members.

Zakaria, a PKR member of 20 years, had called his dismissal unfair. He pointed out that MACC had not pressed charges after it completed the investigation.

He said he was also not given a chance to defend himself.

“There was no due process in this case.”

Zakaria’s case has led to yet another row between the two factions of party leaders aligned to Azmin and Anwar Ibrahim. – November 30, 2019.