KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — PAS has never given its leaders the go-ahead to hold talks with their counterparts in any party under the unity government, said Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
The PAS deputy president, when contacted by Mingguan Malaysia yesterday, said that the issue of negotiations with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and his deputy, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, has never been raised during PAS leadership meetings.
“I have no information, and PAS has never given a mandate to any of its leaders to hold discussions,” he said.
He said this in response to a statement by Zahid, who is the Umno president, claiming that representatives from Opposition parties were seeking to meet him and the prime minister to discuss ways of cooperating for the 16th general election (GE16).
However, Zahid, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said he was not keen to meet these representatives yet.
The Umno president was also reported to have said, “Don’t get bitten by the same snake twice.”
Commenting further, Tuan Ibrahim said PAS is currently focused on strengthening its ties with coalition party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), to win GE16.
“PAS is busy concentrating its efforts on strengthening Perikatan Nasional, confident that PN can do well in GE16 even without Umno,” he said.
