Since Anwar Ibrahim has now been confirmed by Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia as no longer being the Permatang Pauh MP, there are many questions that have arisen among politicians and the people.

The more pertinent questions are whether Pakatan is going to stick together, who is going to be the future opposition leader, as well as who would be running in the upcoming by-election.

However, that is not the question that seems to be in PAS lawmaker Mahfuz Omar’s mind. He seems to be astounded with the backdated date the ruling takes effect as stated in Pandikar’s letter today.

“It is weird that it is stated in the letter that Anwar lost his position starting March 16, when the Pardons Board did not specify when it started,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

The reason behind it, the Pokok Sena MP deduced, was to legitimise the statement made by the Prisons Department last month in not allowing Anwar to attend the Dewan Rakyat sitting.

“It is not right for the speaker to state the vacancy had begun on March 16 when it should state today.

“I think this is done to legitimise what was said by the Prisons Department which did not allow Anwar to attend the Parliament sitting even though he was a legitimate MP,” Mahfuz added.

Meanwhile, touching on the Permatang Pauh by-election, DAP lawmaker Ramkarpal Singh believed something else stood in the way of Pakatan’s success. However, the obstacle is not in the form of rivals BN but ironically is PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

“I do not know whether there can be a consensus in the Permatang Pauh by-election with Hadi, as he still calls the shots as the PAS president.

“There is no problem with the PAS members at the ground level but only with the leadership (Hadi). Eventually, it will boil down to a leadership crisis,” he said.

‘Cutting off ties with Hadi’ stand may affect polls

While stressing that he still stood by the stand made by his party to cut off all ties with Hadi, the Bukit Gelugor MP admitted that it complicates things on the Pakatan leadership level, which might affect the upcoming by-election.

“During the by-election, it might pose problems... whether there is going to be cooperation between Pakatan parties.

“But I think it is important to make it clear that DAP is prepared to work fully with PKR,” Ramkarpal ( right ) said.

PKR’s Johari Abdul on the hand revealed the party has yet to decide upon the candidate to be fielded for the seat as the announcement of the vacancy came as a “surprise” to the party and coalition.

“This is a surprise... This came as a surprise. So, certainly the top leadership will convene a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the next step of action,” he said.

However, the Sungai Petani MP was a bit reluctant in answering if Hadi would be joining the top leadership in deciding on the next course of action.

“We’ll talk about it,” he said after a brief pause before telling the media to give Pakatan “some space” to digest the new developments.