Former PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa has been removed from the party's powerful syura council, according to the council's secretary Nik Zawawi Nik Salleh.

 

Nik Zawawi told Sinar Harian that the council had removed Nasharudin on grounds that he had breached a few of the council's rules.

 

The council had made the decision during a Jan 13 meeting but party leaders had kept mum on the matter, but rumours of Nasharuddin's dismissal had persisted since.

 

Malaysiakini has been unable to independently verify Sinar Harian's report with many party leaders refusing to even discuss the matter.

 

Nasharudin was once a leading figure in PAS until news reports claimed that he was trying to convince party leaders to forge closer ties with arch-rivals Umno due to religious reasons, instead of secularist DAP and PKR.

 

NONE On several occasions, Nasharudin had attempted to drive a wedge between PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat allies, such as by claiming that DAP had prayed for the formation of a Christian state after the Sarawak state election in 2011.

 

Irking party members further was Nasharudin's apparent cosy ties with Umno. He had accompanied Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak abroad a few times, most recently to Gaza .