PARLIAMENT PKR and DAP parliamentarians are donning black as a sign of protest following Anwar Ibrahim's imprisonment and the refusal of the government to allow Anwar to attend the Parliament session today.

PKR representatives say that the decision to don black was not an “instruction” by the party, but a collective decision by the lawmakers.

PKR’s Parliament whip Johari Abdul said that all PKR MPs are “encouraged” to wear black, while DAP’s lawmaker Fong Kui Lun confirmed the same.

Several PAS lawmakers, such as Kuala Krai MP Hatta Ramli, and Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin, donned black, but PAS whip Mahfuz Omar wore the white first costume for the day.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang was absent as he was overseas.

Hanipa said that PAS leaders did not come in black as they were “notified late” about the decision for MPs to don black.

“That is because we in PAS were notified late, and it was too late for some of us to change our plans,” Hanipa said.

Meanwhile, the first two seats of the opposition bench were empty today after the authorities rejected Anwar's appeals to attend the sitting.

Previously, Anwar's family members and lawyers had attempted to seek the home ministry's and Dewan Rakyat speaker's approval for him to attend the Dewan Rakyat sitting, to no avail.

On Feb 10, the Federal Court upheld Anwar's conviction and five-year jail term for sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Anwar and his Pakatan Rakyat colleagues have maintained his innocence and claimed that the charge was politically motivated.