SENIOR minister Mohamed Azmin Ali has been accused of isolating Umno and PAS in Selangor after holding a state development meeting without party representatives earlier this week.

This has led the Gombak divisions of both parties to declare that they will only work with each other under their Muafakat Nasional pact.

Gombak is Azmin’s federal constituency.

Umno division chief Megat Zulkarnain Omardin and PAS division chief Salehuddin Mohd Nasir are also questioning Azmin’s stand, saying he is not a member of any party.

Megat said Umno will only work with PAS under Muafakat Nasional in Gombak.

He added Azmin had been appointed to chair the state development action council for Selangor but acted “strangely” by not inviting Umno and PAS, who are supposedly his allies in the Perikatan Nasional federal government.

“He did not call Perikatan reps to the meeting and instead only had Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari (who is from Pakatan Harapan),” said Megat in an interview on the Gombak.tv Facebook page.

“Azmin appears confused whether he is with PH or Perikatan. Nevermind, whether or not he acknowledges Perikatan in Selangor, we don’t want to work with ex-PKR people in Gombak,” Megat said.

PAS’ Salehuddin said in the same interview that the Gombak division had conveyed to Gombak Setia assemblyman and Azmin aide, Hilman Idham, that they would only cooperate with Umno in Gombak under Muafakat Nasional.

“I feel as if there is some attempt to demoralise Muafakat Nasional in Gombak. I don’t even know.

“Which party is Azmin in? Where does he stand, who is he working for?”

Salehuddin also said he found it confusing that ex-PKR members who left the party or were sacked for being Azmin loyalists did not seem to have a political stand.

“The ex-Wanita PKR people, they are acting under the name of an NGO, Nation of Women. But Gombak constituents cannot accept this lack of clarity.

Azmin was PKR deputy president until he defected in February to side with Barisan Nasional, PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak to topple the Pakatan Harapan government.

State development action councils are established by the federal government as implementation committees in opposition-held states, such as Selangor, Penang, Sabah and Negri Sembilan.

They are placed under the Implementation Coordination Unit of the Prime Minister’s Office and led by a federal minister from that state, who meets with MPs and state assemblymen on development issues.

Selangor PAS commissioner Ahmad Yunus Hairi and state Umno chief Noh Omar have also expressed their displeasure at being sidelined from the state development council meeting. – July 18, 2020.