The Larut PAS division, Perak, said it was unethical for Perak Umno especially during the holy month of Ramadan, to mislead the public with the false news that 756 PAS members from the Bagan Baru branch had joined Umno.

NONE Its chief Dr Mohd Dhari Othman said that Umno must come up with the names of the PAS members who allegedly left to substantiate the claim.

He claimed that Umno was losing the support of voters in his area and it was simply trying to gain political mileage.

Mohd Dhari said this when contacted today after he had sent a media statement via email to Malaysiakini yesterday.

Claim countered

He was countering the claim in an Utusan online report last Saturday, which alleged that 756 PAS members, led by Bagan Baru PAS branch deputy chief Mat Arop Saman, had crossed over to Umno.

NONE Mohd Dhari clarified that Mat Arop had resigned from the Bagan Baru Umno branch and applied to join PAS in 2008 when Pakatan took control of Perak after the general election.

However, his PAS membership application was only officially approved by the state party on June 22, 2009.

The application for the Bagan Baru PAS branch to be registered under the Registrar of Societies is still pending, and the pro-tem committee of Bagan Baru PAS has not been formed yet.

Thus Mohd Dhari is puzzled over how the Utusan online report came out with such claims.