Menteri Besar Kelantan Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat admitted that the BN-led federal government's initiative in providing subsidy and aid was a form of welfare to the people although it does not meet PAS' welfare state agenda.

NONE He said though providing subsidy and aid was a form of welfare, although the federal government would have to shoulder the burden of huge spending to fulfill such an initiative.

"However, such a form of welfare does not reflect what PAS has been advocating," he said in his Friday sermon in Kota Bharu today when clarifying the difference between the concept of the federal government and PAS.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had retreated from a hard-line Islamic state agenda when opening the PAS muktamar two weekends ago, choosing instead to focus on a welfare state that redistributes wealth by taking a razor to government-linked corporations’ profits.

Following the change in trend by PAS, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak echoed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement that PAS had veered from its Islamic state agenda due to DAP’s influence.

Nik Aziz however clarified that the welfare state agenda propagated by PAS, which has since become the party's new ideology, would not disrupt the party's progress towards an Islamic state agenda.

- Bernama