PAS has set a target of winning at least 40 parliamentary seats in the next general election, according to party vice president Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah.

He said this was among the three main objectives it had set for the polls.

Amar, who is Kelantan deputy menteri besar, said the party’s two other objectives were to remain in power in Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu at state level, while retaining its position in the federal government.

“We have to make sure that our presence in the federal government continues. As it is when walking, we have already taken a step forward and can’t go back, we have to make sure we stay strong,” he said when launching the party’s election campaign last night.

PAS has 18 MPs and is a member of the Perikatan Nasional alliance, led by Bersatu.

Meanwhile the fellow vice president Idris Ahmad said Malays cannot afford to be as divided as they were in 2018.

He said Malays’ inability to unite would be detrimental to the community’s future.

This being the case, he said PAS remained committed to work with Umno and Bersatu in the next poll.

“The media often asks, does PAS want to choose Umno or Bersatu? We choose both. We want unity, Let the people be the judge,” he said last night.

He said PAS’s insistence on uniting the three parties was out of concern for future generations.

However, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi slammed this door shut two days ago, saying it was time for Umno to move forward.

“There is nothing (for Umno) to sob about when PAS always played it safe but at the same time, they can be with others,” Zahid said in a Facebook post on Friday.

He was responding to PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who – at the party’s annual congress – said the Islamist party had never declared that its Muafakat Nasional (MN) partnership with Umno was over.

Zahid said that MN should have been the best entity to lead the country forward, an organisation born out of the two largest parties in the country, as a result of people’s waning confidence in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government at that time.

However, he said PAS broke that trust when it decided to partner with Bersatu. – September 4, 2022.