PAS’s powerful elder Muslim scholars council, the Shura, has declared that the Islamist party must end ties with DAP, more than a month after PAS adopted a resolution to cut relations with its former Pakatan Rakyat ally. The Shura Council ruled however that ties with PKR would continue in the spirit of tahaluf siasi (political cooperation), the body’s secretary Datuk Dr Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh said.
The council’s decision will be passed down to the party’s central committee for implementation, Nik Muhammad Zawawi said in a brief statement today.
“The council is disappointed with the provocative actions of DAP and its decision that has threatened and breached the spirit of cooperation in Pakatan Rakyat.
“Therefore the Shura Council has ruled that the tahaluf siasi with DAP is void,” Nik Muhammad Zawawi said. “However PAS will continue the tahaluf siasi with PKR.” The Shura Council comprising scholars and clerics guides the party’s direction and determines whether its policies are in keeping with its brand of Islam. Its decisions are almost always followed by the party’s elected central executive committee (CEC). Nik Muhammad Zawawi said PAS would continue its political cooperation with other non-Muslim political parties and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The council’s ruling is the final decision that PAS leaders have been waiting for on how to treat DAP following months of acrimony between the former allies. In early June, PAS’s annual assembly adopted without debate a resolution to cut ties with DAP, but its leaders insisted that the motion was not a final decision by the party as this would be made by the Shura Council and the CEC. Soon after the motion was passed, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng requested that all PAS members resign from their Penang government posts. The motion was the brainchild of its Muslim scholars’ wing, the Dewan Ulama, in response to DAP’s decision in April to cut ties with party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, who is also an ulama. DAP has been at odds with Hadi for refusing to follow PR presidential council decisions and for his insistence on implementing the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code, or hudud. After PAS’s assembly, DAP and PKR leaders declared that the PR as a formal alliance was dead, but the three parties continue to have officials in the Selangor government. – July 11, 2015. – See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/pas-syura-council-officially-cuts-ties-with-dap#sthash.ICvSl6aK.dpuf