PAS members who do not agree with the party’s involvement in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition should simply leave the party instead of causing internal problems, PAS central committee member Khalid Samad said today.

"The tahalluf siyasi (political cooperation or consensus) is a PAS muktamar decision. I urge those who do not want to implement it to join Umno or BN or go by yourself. Leave PAS and do whatever you want.

"There is no need to cause problems within PAS itself and move it towards an undesirable direction," Khalid told a press conference in Shah Alam.

The Shah Alam MP declined to name who he was referring to, apart from acknowledging that some quarters within PAS felt that the alliance is pointless unless Islam benefits from it, and that the party’s allies only approach PAS for help during elections and during mass protests.

'PAS has benefited from the relationship'

Contrary to these opinions, Khalid argued that PAS had benefited from the relationship because through the political positions it gained - ranging from village chiefs to state exco members - it was more able to approach members of the public than ever before.

He added that to “benefit Islam” should not mean dominance of Islam or an ethnic group over others, but to bring justice and benefits of Islam to all.

The alliance with PKR and DAP, he said, gives PAS the opportunity to prove that politics based on Islamic principles is better than Umno’s racial or nationalists politics.

“If we still cannot not reap benefits with such space and opportunity, it does not mean there are shortcomings to the tahalluf siyasi approach through Pakatan Rakyat, but instead there are shortcomings in ourselves,” he said.

To a question on why PAS was not present at the meeting between PKR and DAP yesterday to discuss the Selangor sultan’s request for each Pakatan party to nominate two persons for the post of menteri besar, Khalid said it was because PAS has a differing opinion on the issue than other the two parties.

“It would have been very awkward (to be present) because they wanted to name only (PKR president) Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, whereas PAS had wanted a more open selection, including Wan Azizah,” he said.

He also dismissed speculation that PAS would nominate its Selangor commissioner Iskandar Abdul Samad for the state’s menteri besar, saying that there is already a consensus within Pakatan Rakyat that the post should go to a PKR assemblyperson.

Selangor crisis today

9.47am: Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak accuses PKR of ' open nepotism ' for nominating Dr Wan Azizah Ismail as MB.

12.59pm: PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali says the party will not nominate its own candidates, but will submit at least two names from PKR.

1pm: PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim says Wan Azizah chosen not because she is his wife but because she is PKR president.

1.33pm: Legal expert Abdul Aziz Bari says that sultan has no power to ask for more than one MB candidate.

2.45pm: MB Khalid Ibrahim denies PKR's and DAP's assertion that they had only nominated him in 2013, although the palace asked for four names.

4pm: With rife speculation of Pakatan break up, PAS MP Khalid Samad says those in PAS who don’t believe in Pakatan can leave the party.

4.35pm: Anwar refutes Khalid’s claim that more than one name was submitted in 2013.

5.45pm: DAP reveals that in 2013, it was Khalid's office who drafted the letter to the palace for Pakatan parties, who nominated only him.

6.17pm: The palace sends letters to Pakatan parties, telling them to submit more than two names each by Sep 3 .