Zahid: Ismail Sabri could've fired PN ministers over petition to Agong

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has fired back at Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin in the latest exchange pertaining to the dissolution of Parliament.

According to Zahid (above), caretaker prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob could have just fired the 12 PN ministers who petitioned the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to hold off the 15th general election (GE15) this year.

"However, this (firing the ministers) would have led to a bigger, more critical crisis that would have shamed the country's administration.

"It would have also caused a vote of no confidence, and so on," said the incumbent Bagan Datuk MP in a statement posted on his Facebook today.

Undisciplined conduct

The reason Ismail Sabri met the Agong to request for Parliament dissolution is to avoid dealing with the "undisciplined" conduct of the cabinet members, he added.

"This is ideal to return the mandate to the rakyat, to deal with party hoppers, and to ensure political stability in order to restore the economy in the coming years," said Zahid.

He said the political "tragedy" of having three prime ministers in five years should never be repeated again.

"God willing, when BN secures a huge mandate and returns to power, such matters will never happen again."

Zahid's statement comes following the remark by Muhyiddin earlier today that Ismail Sabri was “irresponsible” for blaming the dissolution of Parliament on the 12 ministers from PN.

According to Zahid, the ministers should have discussed the matter in the cabinet, but instead chose to take it (the petition) to the king and go public with it to shame the prime minister and BN.

He said Muhyiddin had also previously "threatened" to pull support for Ismail Sabri, after calls to give the deputy prime minister's post to his party (Bersatu) went unheeded.

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