PAS Negri Sembilan will only act on its members' complaints against Koperasi Al-Hilal (Kohilal) after the party elections scheduled for next month in order to avoid leaders trading barbs over the issue.

Its commissioner Dr Rosly Yaacob said although the compilation of complaints against Kohilal is ready for submission to the cooperative's management, he will only do it after the PAS annual general meeting, during which the elections will be held.

He explained that the reason for this is because he does not want his intention of helping those with trouble regarding their investment in the PAS-linked cooperative to be misconstrued as an attempt to tarnish the reputation of certain leaders.

"If I send it now... before the muktamar (annual general assembly)... I may be accused of attempting to discredit certain leaders in the party.

"This (the postponement) is to show that there is no hidden (political) agenda. This is purely business. My intention is only to channel members' grouses properly so that we could engineer a positive outcome," he said when contacted.

30 complaints

He said that he received about 30 complaints, mostly regarding the status of investments.

"Some of the complaints made by the next of kin to investors who have since passed away. They only want to know what had happened to their investments and if that they (the investments) were properly recorded in the cooperatives' books."

When asked, Rosly said no party leader has challenged his decision openly to collect the complaints.

"Nothing like that has happened. No one rebuffed or anything like that. But when the issue is discussed among us, I feel that there is some discomfort ...especially now when divisions are making nominations for the elections. I would rather keep the issue until after the muktamar ," he added.

PAS' divisions nationwide are currently holding their respective annual general assemblies where the newly elected office bearers in each division decide over candidates to run for the party's key posts.

All key posts are open for contest but to date no names have been nominated to challenge current president Abdul Hadi Awang, who is likely to retain the post unopposed.

However, it may not be smooth sailing for his deputy Senator Hassan Shukri, who headed Kohilal at the time when the co-operative made several botched investments between 1996 and 1999.

Several candidates have been nominated to challenge him and pundits are predicting a tough fight.

Topping the list is renowned faith healer, PAS deputy spiritual leader and information chief Dr Haron Din . He has secured 14 nominations thus far, while Hassan has only received seven while party reasture Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman has four.

'Anti-ulama' allegation

Meanwhile a PAS politician from Petaling Jaya claimed that Rosly's decision to postpone the Kohilal matter could be linked to the ongoing efforts by a certain faction who accuse those who raise the issue of 'trying to undermine the ulama (religious scholars) presence in the party'.

"Every time each division mulls over the nomination, Kohilal issues will crop up. This hampers the chances of a certain leader - we all know who - from retaining his post. So, his supporters go around making allegations that the issue is a conspiracy against the ulama.

"The allegation is of course ridiculous because the hot favourite is Haron Din, who is a well-known ulama We hope members can ignore this allegation and nominate based on merits and nothing else," said the politician who declined to be named.