PAS mouthpiece Harakah Daily is still not ready to accept the proposed settlement to a defamation suit filed by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, following a report it carried questioning Riza Aziz's lifestyle and 1MDB, which it based on a New York Times report.

Harakah lawyer Wan Rohimi Wan Daud said with this position taken, the Court of Appeal fixed Sept 26 for case management on the matter.

"We cannot settle the matter as of now we are not ready to accept the proposed settlement.

"I cannot be certain whether the settlement (can be reached in light of recent developments).

"Certainly, we need to discuss this further within PAS, as the party owns Harakah," Wan Rohimi said when met after the case management today.

Despite this, Wan Rohimi still did not rule out the possibility of seeing a settlement to the defamation suit. Wan Rohimi is also PAS Youth legal and human rights department director.

Mohd Hafarizam Harun, who appeared for Najib, concurred that they needed more time.

"Parties need time to negotiate the terms and we will update the court," Hafarizam said.

Najib named Harakah managing director Dr Rosli Yaakop and Harakahdaily chief editor Taufek Yahya as defendants in the defamation suit filed on March 18 last year, following the publication of the article which was mainly based on a New York Times report.

In his statement of claim, Najib had said that the article portrayed him as having misused 1MDB funds and that the publication of the article was intended to tarnish his reputation.

Two appeals by Najib

Previously, it was reported that Najib had two appeals before the Court of Appeal in relation to this case namely - amending his statement of claim to insert the statement by attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali that he had been cleared of wrongdoing regarding MDB; and Najib's application to go into the case without calling witnesses.

Both the applications were dismissed by Justice Hue Siew Kheng.

Justice Hue had thrown out Najib's bid to amend the statement of claim to insert Apandi's statement and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's statement on April 7.

On May 23, the High Court judge also dismissed Najib's application under Order 14A of the Rules of Court 2012, as she ruled the defence of 'qualified privilege' and 'fair comment' were questions of facts and law, and that the matter could only be resolved in a full trial.

Najib and Harakah's proposal to settle the suit out of court was first revealed on June 21.

Besides this suit, the premier and Umno president has five ongoing suits, namely against Malaysiakini, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli, DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua, and former MCA president and former transport minister Dr Ling Liong Sik.

He has, however, settled his defamation suit with Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming of the DAP.