Barisan Nasional candidate Rohaizat Othman will make a statutory declaration if necessary to clear his name from allegations raised by his opponents pertaining to his disbarment by the Bar Council.

Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin said the party's candidate for the Permatang Pasir had already explained to him and other leaders on the status of the case in details.

He said Umno leadership was convinced that Rohaizat was not guilty of any wrongdoing and therefore the question on whether he was eligible to contest or not does not arise.

Muhyiddin explained that Rohaizat had already settled his problem with his client - Koperasi Pekebun Getah Negeri Pulau Pinang Berhad - with a RM161,000 repayment sum.

The cooperative too, he said, had issued a letter to Rohaizat that the issue had been settled and buried.

"I don't understand why everyone is making an issue out of this. As far I am concerned he is not guilty of any wrongdoing.

"If needed, he is even prepared to make a statutory declaration to prove his innocence," said Muhyiddin at press conference in Seberang Jaya today.

The embattled Rohaizat had been under fire from Pakatan Rakyat leaders since Monday's nomination after it was found that his lawyer practicing license had been struck off by the Malaysian Bar in March last year.

The Bar had clarified that the 38-year-old Rohaizat was punished by its disciplinary board over his own personal misconduct in discharging his professional legal duties as a lawyer.

The Bar's revelation had Muhyiddin fuming.

Angry over the hidden agenda

He slammed the lawyers' governing body of having a hidden agenda to tarnish Rohaizat publicly.

He suggested that the Bar Council should be non-partisan in taking disciplinary actions.

"It seems the Bar is swift in taking disciplinary action on Barisan Nasional candidates, not on others" he alleged, when asked by a reporter whether the Bar had overstepped its boundaries.

Rohaizat faces PAS state commissioner Mohd Salleh Man in a straight fight in the by-election, held following the death of its long serving assemblyperson Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman on July 31.

The constituency has 20,290 voters and one postal vote, with 72.36 percent of the electorate being Malays, 25.85 percent Chinese, 1.63 percent Indians and 0.16 percent others. It has 300 new voters.

In 2008 general election, Hamdan won it with a majority of 5,433 votes last year, beating Umno's Ahmad Sahar Shuib.

Not a case of breach of trust

Muhyiddin, the BN deputy chairperson, said Rohaizat had explained to him that he was struck off from the roll when he could not attend the disciplinary hearing on his case last March.

"This is not a case breach of trust . . . it's just that his license had been revoked," he said, pointing out that the Election Commission had cleared him and allowed him to contest.

Rohaizat is learnt had also been fined twice by the Bar and his clients have filed several complaints against him to the Bar, all on unprofessional misconducts.

When told this, Muhyiddin brushed them aside suggesting that there were trivial issues.

He instead claimed that there were previous cases where Pakatan candidates with much worse past track records had contested and won elections.

"No one made a fuss about them," he lamented.

Umno veteran parliamentarian Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had also criticised Umno of choosing Rohaizat without vetting his candidature credentials.

To this, Muhyiddin said given that Umno had made its choice of candidate, the party would standby Rohaizat and work towards victory on the polling day on Aug 25.

Rohaizat's controversy had become a hot topic in this campaign since Malaysiakini reported it on Friday.

Pakatan leaders have called on Rohaizat to withdraw gracefully from the contest to evade further public embarrassment.