Selangor PAS chief under fire from own party
SHAH ALAM, Aug 6 — The decision by Datuk Hassan Ali to call for DAP’s Ronnie Liu to be stripped off his local government portfolio is not sitting well even within his own party.
Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad said yesterday that contrary to his claims the PAS commissioner had no business making such a call without consulting the party state liaison committee.
During a press conference on Tuesday Hassan said the decision to call for Liu's removal was made by the party's Dewan Harian, which met on Monday.
However, Khalid said such a policy must be endorsed by the liaison committee, which is the highest decision-making body in Selangor PAS.
“The Dewan Harian only comprises appointed office bearers who are in charge of the day-to-day running of the party in each state.”
Hassan had also lashed out at his executive council colleague for “interfering” in the duties of enforcement officers who had seized beer from a 7-Eleven outlet which was located near a surau in Section 8, Shah Alam.
A decision was made to return the beer the next day because local authorities have no powers to confiscate beer and this had been confirmed by Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) mayor Mazalan Md Noor who said the legality of the seizure was questionable.
Meanwhile, two other PAS leaders who did attend Monday’s Dewan Harian meeting said the issue of calling Liu to be stripped of his exco portfolio was never discussed.
MBSA PAS councillor Izham Hashim said they were upset with Liu for reprimanding the MBSA officers directly instead of following protocol and allowing the mayor to discipline his own officers.
“We wanted to issue a caution to Liu for his conduct which we feel is unbecoming but I cannot remember anything being said about removing the local government exco from his portfolio.”
Another PAS leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Khalid was glaringly left out of Monday’s meeting.
“This is odd because he is the Shah Alam MP and the area where the beer waa seized falls under his jurisdiction.”
He added that he was surprised when he learned that Hassan had made the call for Liu to be stripped of his local government portfolio during the press conference.
“The issue was never discussed and we never agreed to call for such a move.”
Meanwhile, the move by Hassan has also caused a bigger rift between him and his Pakatan Rakyat colleagues.
A visibly upset state leader asked why Hassan was using the state secretariat to hold press conferences to attack his own exco colleagues.
“If he was expressing his party stand, why was he using state facilities?” she said.
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