ECONOMIC Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali has dismissed calls for him to temporarily step down from his government posts, saying his focus continues to be on delivering the Putrajaya’s promises to the people.

Azmin told reporters today he will continue working while police investigate the sex video, adding that he still enjoys the support of his constituents.

“It is our duty as the Pakatan Harapan government to stick to the new policy, new approach, new politics. These are values we must defend.

“I will retain my focus to deliver as minister of economic affairs and I’m here to support the policy of the prime minister. We will continue to move forward to deliver to the people,” said Azmin, who is also PKR deputy president.

He has repeatedly denied he is the man in a sex video that went viral earlier this week, slamming the incident as a plot to destroy his political future.

Yesterday, reform group Otai Reformasi urged Azmin to go on leave until investigations into the sex clip implicating him and another man are complete.

Idris Ahmad, chairman of the group formed after PKR president Anwar Ibrahim was sacked in 1998, said the call was made to preserve “the good name” of the Pakatan Harapan government.

Azmin today repeated earlier statement decrying the sharing of the video as “gutter politics”, and urged all parties to allow the authorities time and space to conduct their probe following the lodging of several police reports into the incident.

“For me, from day one, this is gutter politics, and I have made my statement clear – I will not condone it. But since the report is there, let authorities continue the investigation, no one should intervene.”

Azmin is caught up in a scandal after a PKR colleague Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz allegedly confessed to being one of the two men in a sex video, and named Azmin as being the other man.

Earlier today, Azmin urged his friends and supporters to have faith as the “the truth shall prevail” against the allegations.

“To all friends and well-wishers, thank you for your kind and reassuring words, thoughts and prayers.

“I am deeply grateful for the support and care you have shown me in this most trying time but fear not for the truth shall prevail and we shall overcome. In God we trust,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

Haziq has since been arrested for distributing pornographic materials as well as for committing carnal acts against nature.

He was arrested yesterday night while attempting to board a plane for Manila, police said today.

Azmin has denied intimate knowledge of Haziq, whom he said he only knew ‘from afar’. – June 15, 2019.