PAS today sacked Hishamuddin Yahya, the managing director of its party organ Harakah , who had served the publication for more than a decade.

It is learnt that staff were informed via an internal memo that Hishamuddin's services had been terminated and PAS secretary-general Kamaruddin Jaafar ( left ) would replace him with immediate effect.

The memo, dated today, was signed by the publication's chairperson Mustapha Ali.

Contacted later, Mustapha confirmed issuing the memo but declined to comment on the reasons behind the change.

"I am not in liberty to tell you the reasons. An official statement may be made when the matter is referred to the central working committee," he said.

However, party sources claimed that Hisamuddin was sacked because he had refused the repeated requests from PAS leaders to quit the post.

"The party met several times since the last editorial revamp in Harakah . After assessing his performance, they felt it was time for him to leave.

"A delegation of leaders met him again this afternoon and requested that he resign but he avoided committing to the request. As a result, the memo had to be issued," he added.

Repeated complaints

A Harakah staff, who declined to be named, said an assessment of Hishamuddin's performance was initiated following repeated complaints over his management of the company for the past years.

"The staff here had been facing problems regarding his financial management which made it difficult for us - especially those in the editorial section - to do their jobs.

"There had been attempts to highlight the problems he had caused without mentioning names. There were even motions made at the muktamar (party annual general assembly) but these were in vain".

According to the staff, another reason behind the termination was the alleged grudge Hishamuddin harboured against Zulkifli Sulong ( right ) the editor of the publication's online version.

"He even threatened to stop salaries of those who contributed to the online version. That evoked a lot of anger. This is why many of us accepted the news of his termination with open arms.

"Our only hope is that the new managing director would create positive changes for better working conditions."

Mustapha refused to comment on this allegation as well.

However, the new managing director believes that there are no controversial reasons behind his predecessor's sacking.

"It is just the normal exercise of change that the party normally makes. I don't think it has anything to do with work performance," said Kamaruddin.

Repeated attempts to contact Hishamuddin for comments proved futile.