PKR central committee member Khalid Jaafar says PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim was never involved in the Sabah identity card fiasco in the time he was in government.

Khalid, then an aide to Anwar, said: "Although Anwar has held various positions in the cabinet, he was never the home minister.

pkr negarakuku forum 210807 khalid jaafar "Anwar was youth and sports minister, education minister, finance minister and deputy prime minister," said Khalid ( left ), who is also Hulu Selangor PKR information chief.

"I can (state) that Anwar was never involved in this matter (issuing ICs to non-citizens) in Sabah."

In the cabinet, Khalid said, one cannot infringe on another minister’s portfolio.

Megat Junid, he said was the de facto Home Minister (as Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the Home Minister).

“Anwar has never been appointed as acting Deputy Home Minister or acting Home Minister before,” he said.

He said this when Sabah general surgeon Dr Chong Eng Leong was asked today if Anwar had been involved in the issuance of ICs to non-citizens in Sabah.

This was part of an operation called 'Project IC', which Chong has dubbed as "Project M" in reference to the former premier.

Chong, who was a PBS member but is now in PKR, said this when declaring that Umno was responsible in giving out ICs to foreigners who he estimated numbered 600,000 in 2005.

Chong, when asked this question, said he could not answer it and that such questions should be posed to Anwar himself.

Zaid creating diversion

Khalid, when asked about comments from Kita president Zaid Ibrahim wanting the police to reveal who was the main actor in the sex-tape, said the lawyer was merely creating diversion to the main issues at hand.

NONE “As a practising lawyer, Zaid ( right ) should know the law better. Zaid was once the president of the Muslim Lawyers Association. He must know that what is important is not the main actor but who is responsible for showing the video in public.

“Furthermore, in Islam if there is zina (adultery) four credible witnesses must be produced. Is this done? That is why Anwar or PKR has lodged a complaint on qazaf (false allegations) regarding the sex-tape,” he said.

Khalid asked whether the authorities had investigated the allegations made by Anwar or the PKR?

He said no such investigations had been done by the authorities into the complaint.

“Zaid should have known better that all this is a political conspiracy directed at tarnishing Anwar’s reputation. Over the weekend, a religious scholar from Syria came to explain about the oath ceremony (taken by businessperson Shazryl Eskay Abdullah) and qazaf,” he said.

Yesterday, several newspapers quoted Zaid wanting the police to reveal the identity of the main actor in the video, that the police’s credibility would be affected if they hesitated to reveal the identity of the man in the sex video.

He warned that if the police continued to decide not to disclose the results of their investigation, more speculation would surface and this time more people would be convinced that the police were playing politics.

NONE However, today deputy inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar ( left ) was quoted to have said to Bernama in Johor Baru that police were not legally bound to reveal the identity of the man in the sex video who resembled an opposition leader.

He said the case was being investigated under Section 292 of the Penal Code which concerned possession and distribution of pornographic material and did not require the police to make the man’s identity known.

“If we act beyond our legal boundaries, we may be accused of being involved in politics,” said Khalid.