KUALA NERUS: PAS is to hold a special meeting of its top leaders in three or four days to discuss the appointment of a parliamentary opposition leader now that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been unseated by virtue of his conviction for sodomy.
Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, political secretary to PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, said the meeting could also discuss how the Pakatan Rakyat opposition pact could be strengthened to carry on with its political struggle.
The Federal Court dismissed Anwar's appeal against a Court of Appeal decision convicting him of having sodomised a former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, and upheld the five-year jail sentence imposed on him by the lower court.
The conviction disqualifies Anwar, the de facto PKR leader, as the member of parliament for Permatang Pauh, thus unseating him as the Opposition Leader. PR has 87 seats in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat, with DAP occupying 37; PKR, 29 and PAS, 21. - Bernama