THE alleged RM90 million donation from Umno is a non-issue as PAS has its own rich donors, said party president Abdul Hadi Awang.

“PAS has its own rich donors who have donated more than RM90 million. PAS has used this money to start Pasti (PAS-run kindergartens),” said Hadi in an interview on Astro Awani this afternoon.

He said the Islamist party had been collecting donations during its ceramahs for decades, and that they had received even more for GE14 which enabled the party to contest in 158 federal seats.

“In the excitement of elections, the donations were even more. We can easily reject this allegation,” said the 70-year-old Marang MP.

Hadi said the allegation that PAS had received RM90 million from Umno was no longer an issue for party grassroots, claiming that he had “won 90%” of his defamation case against the Sarawak Report.

Hadi is suing the whistleblower website’s editor, Clare Rewcastle-Brown, for making the allegation.

The London High Court had ordered her to pay Hadi 28,900 pounds (RM156,000) on May 1 after the PAS president won five interlocutory applications in his suit.

However, this does not mean the case is over, as the court has set April 1, 2018 to April 12, 2019 to hear the case.

Political parties are not allowed to sue in the United Kingdom, and the Sarawak Report has petitioned for a quick preliminary trial to determine whether Hadi or PAS is behind the case to silence the website.

The judge, however, felt the website‘s action was tantamount to harassment and ordered costs be paid. – May 28, 2018.