Zaid warns Pakatan Harapan against welcoming PAS back into coalition

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan has been warned against welcoming PAS back into the coalition or risk disintegrating the opposition pact once again.
Former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim (pix) said he was worried that some "PAS-lovers" in Pakatan would be tempted to invite the Islamist party to join the coalition again after it was "abandoned" by Umno, referring to the government's sudden U-Turn not to table PAS' Act 355 bill in Parliament.
"If they are (tempted), let me remind them of one thing that PAS will certainly do - the party will once again break up the newly-minted but fragile coalition.
"Let the parties in the new grouping of Pakatan Harapan focus on the registration of their symbol, common manifesto and seal allocation ... There is no need to add PAS to the equation and risk spoiling everything," he posted on his blog today.
Pakatan Harapan was formed in September 2015 after a fallout between PAS and its opposition members led to the disintegration of the then Pakatan Rakyat in June that year.
Zaid said he was also skeptical that the PAS-Umno relationship has ended and that they were still on their original mission to break the opposition despite the hiccup with the amendments to the Act 355, ot Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965.
The DAP man added that had it not been for Sabah and Sarawak, Act 355 would have been tabled as a government bill.
"I believe the BN politicians of Sabah and Sarawak are genuinely committed to refusing to have religious laws be the bedrock of our criminal justice system," he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak had, on March 29, called off Barisan Nasional's plans to take over and table the private member's bill, which aims to strengthen the Syariah Courts, taking into account the coalition parties' consensus.