Has Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad been kept in the dark over the controversial multi-million logging concession awarded to Umno Pahang five years ago by the state government?

Mahathir, who is also Umno leader, said yesterday that "as far as I am concerned, Umno does not own any land in Pahang". He added that state land could only be alienated to a private company, and not a political party.

However, a June 17 affidavit filed by Umno Pahang in the Kuantan High Court clearly stated that the ruling party was given the vast plot of land - approximately 40 sq km in size - in Nenasi, about 50km south of Pekan.

"In March 1998, Pekan district land office has approved the 10,000-acre land in Nenasi for palm oil cultivation," said Umno Pahang secretary Ahmad Tajudin Sulaiman in the affidavit which was filed to challenge a court decision made earlier against the ruling party.

The Kuantan High Court ruled last month that the party should pay RM70,000 to a logging company, Seruan Gemilang Makmur for a breach of contract.

Umno Pahang has since entered an appeal against the ruling, in which it claimed it was not a party to the deal and that the agreement with SGM was signed by an unauthorised official of the party.

In the affidavit - which malaysiakini has a copy - Ahmad Tajudin also said that the party had been given the green light by the forestry office to log the land.

"In August 1998, the defendant (Umno Pahang) has also obtained the approval from state forestry office to log and extract the timber logs from the said land, and that it should abide with the rules and regulations stated by the office," said Ahmad Tajudin.

Letters sent to Umno

Other documents in malaysiakini 's possession also showed that all correspondence involving the logging of the massive piece of land had been directed to the Umno Pahang headquarters in Kuantan.

This included several letters from the state land and state forestry offices.

In addition, the state executive council's decision to give Umno Pahang the 10,000-acre of state land was recorded in minutes of its meeting on Jan 7, 1998.

The Umno Pahang-SGM deal was signed and certified on Oct 2, 2000 by the party working secretary Abdullah Rahmat, complete with the state Umno's seal.

Eights months before the deal was sealed, party treasurer Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman had also written a recommendation letter - with Umno Pahang office's letterhead - to state forest office in support of SGM's application for a logging licence.

Apart from that, the Pekan district state land office has repeatedly served notices to Umno Pahang instructing the party to clear its land premium of RM4.8 million.

The party's legitimacy to log the land is now in question since it was never 'owned' by Umno Pahang, as it has failed, time and again, to pay the multi-million premium despite being given four rare extension by the land office.

Despite this, Umno Pahang sold its concession rights to SGM in 2000 for a mere RM50,000, giving the logging company the exclusive rights to extract, remove and sell all the timber logs in the land.

Their relationship between the two parties however soured last June when SGM failed to obtain logging licences to clear the remaining tract of forest after having logged about 7,000 acres over the past three years.

The company later took its plight to court , seeking a compensation of RM31 million.

Don't divert attention

Meanwhile, PAS central committee member Dr Hatta Ramli today chided Mahathir for accusing the Muslim-based party in Kelantan and Terengganu for giving out logging concessions to its own members.

"The real issue is Umno Pahang, not PAS. He should not to divert attention on this scandal," Hatta told malaysiakini .

"Mahathir should investigate the allegations rather than blasting PAS. Even more so because the allegations of discrepancies in awarding logging concessions was first made by its own party member."

On the accusations against PAS' own logging practices in the two states which the party controls, Hatta replied: "Please ask them to make a police report if that is true - just as was done by Umno's own representative."

The PAS leader was referring to a police report lodged by Umno Beserah state assembly representative Fauzi Abdul Rahman ( photo ) two years ago which alleged former Pahang Menteri Besar Khalil Yaacob for discrepancies in awarding logging concessions in the state.

Umno had initiated a internal probe against Khalil, who is now information minister and Umno secretary-general.

Mahathir, when asked about the probe yesterday, said he had not received any news about it despite Fauzi earlier informing malaysiakini that the investigation had already been completed and it was up to the party leadership to make its findings public.