Half of the Shah Alam PAS division’s 2015-16 Youth wing committee members resigned from their positions today, claiming 'a lack of cooperation' and differences in the working methods with the new conservative-majority central and state Youth leaderships.

Among them are the division’s Youth chief Helmi Radzuan, his deputy Zainal Said, vice-chairperson Abbas Salimmi Adzmi and 10 other leaders of branches under the PAS Shah Alam division.

Abbas, who led a press conference in Shah Alam today with several of those who resigned, spoke of incidents of 'infringement', and said the wing was not even consulted in some of the state programmes carried out in their division.

"There were some things that took place. Several state Youth wing programmes were carried out in Shah Alam, without us even being notified. We were like pushed aside. Such things never happened before," he said.

Abbas ( third from right in photo ) said their letters of resignation were sent, in two stages, to PAS Shah Alam division chief Khalid Samad and that it was up to the division and its new Youth committee to notify the state and central PAS about it.

However, he denied that the members who resigned wanted to create problems within the party and disunite it.

Their move was rather to allow the PAS Youth headed by Nik Abduh Nik Aziz and Khalil Abdul Hadi to work well with similar-minded leaders in the party divisions in Selangor.

'Resignations a sacrifice for PAS Youth movement'

"This is a sacrifice to allow the continuation of the PAS Youth movement," Abbas added.

PAS is seen as having broken into two different groups, conservatives and professionals, after the party’s 61st muktamar in early June, during which the professionals in the party, or progressives as they are referred to, were wiped out in the leadership elections.

Led by former deputy president Mohamad Sabu, who is better known as Mat Sabu, the progressives have now converged into a new movement known as Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB), which may become a new Islamic political party.

Khalid, the Shah Alam MP, is also aligned with this movement.

However Abbas did not want to confirm, nor deny, when asked whether the 13 who resigned from PAS today would become active in GHB.

"We are looking for a new avenue that matches our methods and GHB is one of them," he said.

Abbas also did n ot deny the possibility that more Shah Alam PAS Youth members would join them in leaving the Islamist party.

Meanwhile, Selangor PAS secretary Mohd Khairuddin Othman ( photo ) lauded their departure.

"We congratulate them. It is better and more courageous of them compared to those who clearly stand with GHB but are still hiding in PAS," he said in a statement.

He called on the state PAS Youth to fill the new vacancies according to the party's constitution.

"These actions do not affect the administration of PAS Selangor as we are ready to fill the vacancies," he said.

He also noted that two Selangor state assemblypersons have sided with GHB and their fate will be decided by the party's central body.

"The remaining 13 PAS state assemblypersons have pledged their loyalty to PAS and the current leadership," he said.

He urged other PAS members to stick with the party, calling GHB a 'spokesperson of DAP'.