PAS has failed to see the funny side in a caricature by cartoonist Amin Landak mocking PAS relationship with Umno in the upcoming Sungai Kandis by-election.

Instead, the Islamist party was left fuming at the cartoon by Amin, an occasional contributor to Malaysiakini, which was published on the news portal.

PAS republished the cartoon on its official Facebook page but superimposed it with multiple text that read: "Malaysiakini rude" (Malaysiakini "biadap").

The cartoon depicted two men in green rolling out a red carpet for another man who alighted from a blue 'BN' vehicle.

The cartoon appeared to be referring to the speculation that PAS opted out of contesting the Sungai Kandis by-election to give way to BN.

PAS leaders have given different reasons as to why it was sitting out the by-election, including wanting to ensure Pakatan Harapan's defeat or that it wanted to wait until after a post-mortem report on the 14th general election is completed.

When contacted, Amin brushed aside the brickbats and said people would understand the meaning of the satirical comic if they calmed down for a moment.

"Many of them said the cartoon insulted religion, but it makes me wonder... how did the cartoon insult religion?

"I criticised their (PAS') capacity as politicians, not an ustaz or religious person, they have to understand the difference between politicians and religious persons.

"If they can't understand this, then it will be a long time before they understand what is political satire," he said.

Meanwhile, PAS supporters, such as the "Tentera Hijau Kebangsaan Malaysia", had uploaded a modified version of the cartoon on Facebook to mock their opponents.

In the modified image, the men's green clothing was changed to orange and their garb bore the Amanah logo - a splinter party of PAS which is now in Harapan.

They also altered the cartoon to depict a DAP man walking on a blue carpet bearing the PKR logo.

As the Amanah duo rolled out the "PKR carpet", a dialogue box was added which read: "Hurry, hurry, big brother wants to walk".

The Sungai Kandis by-election will see a three-way fight between BN's Lokman Noor Adam, PKR's Zawawi Ahmad Mughni and independent candidate K Murthy.

The by-election was held following the passing of PKR's Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei on July 2.

Shuhaimi won the seat in the May 9 general election after garnering 23,998 votes to BN's Kamaruzzaman Johari who received 11,518 votes. PAS' Mohd Yusof Abdullah received 7,574 votes while PRM's Hanafiah Husin got 76 votes.