Selangor Menteri Besar's special officer Yahya Sahri (left ) has been suspended for two months from official duties from today over his alleged abuse of power in awarding cleaning contracts.

yahya sahri A statement from the MB's office an official letter to inform Yahya of his suspension, pending an ACA investigation, was sent today.

"Yesterday MB (Khalid Ibrahim) had SMS-ed Yahya to inform him of the state's decision," an aide to Khalid added.

When contacted, Yahya confirmed that he has been suspended. He was to have called for a press conference at 4pm but that was called off at the last minute.

Allegations were made last month that Yahya had abused his position as Khalid's special officer in awarding cleaning and rubbish disposal contracts to four companies.

The ACA is investigating the matter.

Yahya's suspension comes just about two weeks after Khalid brushed off allegations that any of his top state officials were involved in graft.

He had said that the ACA had looked into facts of the allegations and their initial finding was that no top officials were involved in wrongdoing.

MB: We are transparent

When met at Parliament today, Khalid, also the Bandar Tun Razak MP, confirmed that Yahya has been suspended pending investigations.

"We are still deciding whether we want to forward our findings to the state's Special Select Committee on Competence, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat)," he added.

The menteri besar also said that the ACA probe only showed that "we in PKR are more transparent in our dealings".

Based on the outcome of the investigations we will decide whether he (Yahya) can have his job back," he said.

Earlier this morning, Khalid to reporters at a state function in Shah Alam that Yahya was suspended for two month, effective today.

"We believe that there must be transparency and responsibility. If he is innocent, we will take him back. If not, proper action will be taken against him," said Khalid.

Improper conduct

Khalid also said that an ACA probe had discovered that there had not been any wrongdoings that breached any law but only "improper conduct".

He added that the suspension was necessary for investigations to be done in several files handled by Yahya.

Meanwhile PKR-linked NGO Ikrar today criticised Khalid's decision to suspend Yahya, saying that the move was made in haste and without proper legal backing.

"The MB should have handled the matter with more care so that it doesn't create tension among the PKR supporters, especially in KL and Selangor," said Ikrar's chairperson Mustapa Mansor in a statement today.

Yahya is also the Selangor PKR secretary.

"Was his suspension done in the name of justice or was it an attempt to gain publicity?" he asked.

Has lost confidence in the MB

Later in the night, Yahya's supporter gathered at Khalid's official residence in Sekysen 7 in Shah Alam to protest against the suspension.

However, after a short while, they left the place to gather at Yahya's house in Sekysen 4, also in Shah Alam.

By 9.30pm, almost 150 of Yahya's supporters had gathered to stand by their man.

In an impromptu ceramah that followed, Yahya informed the crowd that he had resigned with immediate effect from being the MB's special officer as well as PKR's state secretary.

In his letter, which was faxed to Khalid's office at about 3.45pm, Yahya said that he had lost confidence in Khalid as the menteri besar.

He added that he would reveal his other reasons at a later date.

He also told his supporters that he wanted Khalid to step down as the state's PKR chief, to be replaced by the party's de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Yahya told Malaysiakini that he had informed of his decision to step down from his posts to PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail this afternoon.

"She told me to discuss the matter with Anwar, which I will be doing tomorrow afternoon," he added. Yahya had been an Anwar loyalist since the early days of reformasi.

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