PAS said today it will not heed any outside parties’ urgings for it to take disciplinary action on central committee member Dr Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki, even though he has been recently called a racist and a traitor to Pakatan Rakyat’s cause.

PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali ( right ) stressed that this was an internal affair and it will act only based on reports from party members.

Zuhdi had earned brickbats from DAP’s Tony Pua and PKR’s Rafizi Ramli, among others,  after it was widely reported that he suggested that DAP and non-Muslims can be marginalised if PAS will work with Umno.

Zuhdi, who is also the operations director of the PAS research centre, had written this as part of a conversation in a PAS central committee’s WhatsApp mobile messaging chat group, which was exposed to the media last week.

In the Utusan report, PAS’ Mustafa however was notably only responding to PKR director of strategy Rafizi, who urged the Islamist party to carry out an investigation on how many members supported Zuhdi’s views .

“I don’t read whatever his reasons are. We don’t take action based on other people’s hearsay. Disciplinary action must be made based on the report by PAS members themselves,” Mustafa was quoted as saying in the Umno-owned daily in Terengganu after a Hari Raya event.

Turmoil over MB

Zuhdi made his remarks in the context of turmoil over PKR’s bid to replace Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, a move which PAS’ top leaders have spoken out against.

Mustafa, however, stressed that despite the Zuhdi chat messages, PAS has never raised the issue of leaving Pakatan. He added that the party’s leaders were clear that Umno was their political rival.

Meanwhile, Mustafa said that PAS would only make a stand on replacing MB Abdul Khalid after a top level meeting on Aug 10. 

He was asked to comment as different PAS leaders have given different positions lately, some agreeing to the replacement of MB Khalid with PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and others opposed.

“Wait for the Aug 10 meet. We will bring the suggestions to the meeting as it has not been raised. Let us discuss it first and we can give a decision after that,” he said.

Mustafa noted that the meeting will be chaired by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and will have finality.

PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat yesterday urged the party to move the meeting forward from August 10 due to the urgency of the matter.
 
However, Mustafa in a text message to Malaysiakini , said there were no such plans despite urgings from the youth wing.
 
"It will still be on August 10," he said.