Newly minted Transport Minister Anthony Loke has assured that permanent officers of the disbanded Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) will not be sacked.

Instead, they will be transferred to the Transport Ministry with most of them being absorbed by the Road Transport Department (RTD).

Speaking at a press conference today after meeting with senior RTD management directors, Loke said the department still had some 1,000 vacancies after a recent recruitment drive was put on hold.

"Spad staff need not worry now that the Transport Ministry has taken over it. Spad has 800 permanent officers and they can be absorbed by the RTD which has 1,000 vacancies.

"Pakatan Harapan cares for the people and will not sack civil servants. Most of the Spad staff officers can fill the RTD vacancies."

As such, Loke hoped no quarter would play up the issue of purported sacking of civil servants by the new Harapan government.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad announced that Spad was among the federal government agencies that would be dissolved to improve efficiency and save costs.

Umno has expressed disagreement with the Harapan government's move to dissolve Spad and other four government bodies and committees.

Umno said Spad was established to monitor land transportation systems and it had no overlapping functions with the RTD.