Zahid: Umno ready to consider lifting Hishammuddin's suspension

Summary

• Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says the supreme council can consider Sembrong division’s proposal to lift Hishammuddin Hussein’s suspension.

• Zahid says this can happen even without the suspended member’s appeal.

Umno is ready to consider its Sembrong division’s proposal to lift the suspension of former vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein's membership.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the party’s supreme council could consider the matter even though there was no appeal letter from the Sembrong MP.

Zahid confirmed that Hishammuddin never submitted an appeal to Umno.

"We will wait for the proposal to be brought by the Johor Menteri Besar (Onn Hafiz Ghazi), who is also a member of the Umno political bureau, and (then) brought to the supreme council.

“The supreme council will not suspend or sack anyone unless there is a fault,” Zahid said after launching Program Desa Kirana at a hotel in Petaling Jaya today.

Asked if the Umno supreme council could lift a member’s suspension despite having no appeal made, Zahid replied: “Can”.

Hishammuddin, who is also Sembrong MP, was slapped with a six-year suspension by Zahid in January 2023. Also suspended was former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan.

Former Umno youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former Selangor Umno chief Nor Omar received the boot.

On June 21, Sembrong Umno urged the party leadership to revoke the suspension imposed on Hishammuddin.

Its division chief Abdul Ghani Abdul Rashid said this is the second time in two years that they passed the resolution to lift Hishammuddin’s suspension.

‘Three mistakes’

Without naming anyone, Zahid said “an individual” had committed three mistakes in Umno, which warranted a punishment.

One is that the “individual” had convinced 10 BN MPs to sign statutory declarations to support Perikatan Nasional after the last general election.

The deputy prime minister added that the person also instigated 22 Sabah Umno division leaders to leave the party, in addition to instigating several coalition leaders to oust Zahid as the BN chief.

“I’m not referring to anyone but I hope our media friends can figure out who the person is… in case he goes around asking what he did wrong,” Zahid added.

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