Top leaders of Pakatan Rakyat dismissed a news report which quoted PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang as saying that he is against the official registration of the coalition.

Instead, they suggested that Hadi may have been misquoted in an exclusive report front-paged by Chinese-language daily Sin Chew Daily .

pas seminar 071109 hadi awang "It is not the time for the three parties to register as a coalition, PAS does not want to make any rushed decision,” he was quoted as saying.

“Pakatan should put the registration on hold and focus on discussing cooperation among themselves first. It need not to be a party. More importantly, we must work at arriving at a common ground and work to settle our differences.”

Official news agency Bernama also carried a similar online news report quoting the PAS president.

Malaysiakini , after failing to get a response from Hadi today, spoke to his political secretary Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who shed light on the report.

Ahmad clarified that Hadi does not dispute Pakatan's decision to register as a coalition.

barisan rakyat pas pkr dap "He agrees to the registration. There is no issue in terms of the three parties' registration as a Pakatan Rakyat Party," said Ahmad.

He added that Hadi maybe have been referring to how the three parties could move forward as a coalition although they each have a different political ideology.

"This did not mean he wants to suspend the registration. Pakatan Rakyat's registration application has been submitted to Registrar of Societies (ROS) and is pending approval."

'No dispute'

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said he believes Hadi would not have made such a statement.

lim kit siang 201108 "Any such statement is completely against what we have worked for. The news report is not correct," said Lim.

He also said there is no dispute because top leaders of the three parties had agreed to submit the registration application to the ROS last month.

PKR director of strategy Tian Chua said had contacted PAS leaders after reading the news report and issued a clarification.

tian chua 03 240505 Chua (right) said Hadi had spoken in the context of the huge responsibility on Pakatan’s shoulder - that, registered or not, the work is cut out for the coalition, including ironing out the ideology of each party.

"Hadi did not mean that Pakatan should not register. We are awaiting approval from ROS., Our focus right now is how to strengthen Pakatan," he added.