KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan expressed his party’s unequivocal support for Bersatu’s membership in the Muafakat Nasional pact.

He said the combination of Malaysia’s three ruling Malay-based parties under a single umbrella would allow the informal pact to intensify its efforts on matters related to Islam, the Malay and Bumiputra community, and topics generally important to the country.

“PAS is also confident the combination of Umno, PAS, and Bersatu will not only create a ‘Melayu Raya’ caucus, but also strengthen Malaysia’s communal structure as a multiracial, multireligous, and multicultural country as laid out by its laws, history, and common experience,” he said in a statement.

He went on to say that the unified MN leadership comprising the presidents of Umno, PAS, and Bersatu was the best collaboration to lead the Perikatan Nasional PN) government.

Yesterday, Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa said Bersatu’s entry into the MN pact has been provisionally approved.

MN is an accord between Umno and PAS based on their mutual cooperation on matters related to Islam and the Malay community ostensibly without sidelining other issues of national concern; it is nominally supported by BN.

However, of the three groupings — MN, PN, and BN — only the last is an officially registered entity while the other two are loose pacts.

MN was meant to be formalised in May this year but this was pre-empted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Umno previously announced that it would not enter PN in the event that it was formalised, saying it preferred to focus on developing MN.

The federal government under Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is the president of Bersatu, continues to be called the PN administration.