The government should explain the RM9.2 million purchase of shares in a top financial advisory company by 30-year-old Umno deputy Youth chief and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin.

PAS vice-president Husam Musa said the government must be transparent on the transaction considering that the company, ECM Libra Berhad, had played a key role in the sale of the Malaysian government's stake in medical service provider Pantai Holdings to Singapore-based firm Parkway Holdings.

"It must be explained how he (Khairy) financed the purchase of the shares," said Husam in a press statement.

"As the son-in-law of the prime minister, he must explain how he made the purchase: whether he took a bank loan, or from his personal wealth, or with commissions - if any - he had received from ECM Libra for his role in Parkway's purchase of stake in Pantai."

Husam also ticked off the Finance Ministry's decision to approved the sale of the government's stake in Pantai to the Singaporean company.

"Until today there has been no clear explanation from the ministry on the matter when a large stake - 31 percent - owned by the Malaysian government was released to a foreign company."

He said the transaction was worrying as Pantai Holdings' subsidiaries, Pantai Medivest and Fomema, have secured key concessions of several government projects including the "total hospital information system" which deals with the data of patients throughout Malaysia.

He said such data is "sensitive and strategic" and there are possibilities that it may be leaked now that a major stake of the mother company is owned by the foreign-based firm.

Did he get commissions?

It was reported yesterday that Khairy, an up-and-coming Umno politician, had acquired a three percent stake in ECM Libra in which he has been a director since July 2004.

Exchange filings showed that Khairy bought 13 million shares at 71 cents per share in three separate transactions from company chairperson Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan - who is also former group editor-in-chief of New Straits Times - chief executive officer Lim Kian Onn and chief operating officer Chua Ming Huat.

Husam questioned if whether Khairy, as the new shareholder of ECM Libra, had benefited from commissions and consultation fees of past business transactions that the company helped brokered, including the sale of the Pantai Holdings' stake.

"Parkway had paid a total of RM311.58 million for the 31 percent stake in Pantai Holdings. From this transaction how much commission did ECM Libra received?" asked Husam.

"If new shareholders get interest from the transaction, wouldn't it seemed like the whole thing was a pre-arranged plan?"

He also raised ECM Libra's role in representing the Selangor Royal in selling their stake in Southern Bank Berhad to government-linked company Commerce International Merchant Bank (CIMB), headed by Deputy Premier Najib Abdul Razak's brother Nazir.

Citing an article at the Malaysian Business , he said Singapore-based investment company Goldman Sachs had valued Southern Bank's share at RM5.50, which is RM1.50 more that the current value at the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

"If CIMB pays the price (quoted by Goldman Sachs) for the shares, surely it create a public uproar as it concerns the use of public funds."

He said it is apparent that ECM Libra - which has a number of politically well-connected individuals on its payroll - will be playing a major role in the country's corporate sector.

As such, Husam said the government must act fast to provide a clear explanation on these pressing financial transactions before more questions are asked.