PKR Sec-Gen: No decision to sack Khalid Ibrahim

PETALING JAYA (Jan 23, 2014): Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Secretary-General Datuk Saifuddin Nasution (pix) dismissed Sin Chew Daily's report yesterday on the sacking of Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.
He said the PKR central leadership council meeting held last week (Jan 15) had only discussed issues pertaining to Selangor, including the price hike of business license fees and the restructuring of water assets under Section 114 of the Water Services Industries Act 2006.
"The meeting did not make any decision on removing Abdul Khalid and replacing him with Gombak MP Azmin Ali.
"It was not a formal proposal but merely 'extreme' opinions raised during the meeting, in discussing Selangor issues, by three or four council members (out of 55)," he said at a press conference today.
Saifuddin had also clarified an online portal's report on January 21 which quoted sources as saying that PKR de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had (during the same meeting) not taken a stand to defend Abdul Khalid's removal as menteri besar.
"The quotes were accurate but taken out of context. Datuk Seri Anwar had meant that he could no longer defend Abdul Khalid against criticisms on his management of state affairs and not calls against him to be sacked," he said when met after the press conference.
He also admitted that Abdul Khalid's mismanagement of Selangor state issues and his "habit" of not including the party in decision making processes were among the reasons that contributed to the emergence of the "extreme" opinions.
"This is not the first time he (Abdul Khalid) did not inform the party of his decisions on state matters. It has been happening since his previous term as menteri besar," Saifuddin said.
He said Abdul Khalid's actions of continuously "excluding" the party in his decisions may have caused the anger of council members resulting in them wanting him to be removed.
"To make any decision to sack the menteri besar (Abdul Khalid) is not something that we (PKR) can do on our own.
"Parties under the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition must be consulted before such decisions can be made. It is therefore impossible for us to have made the decision as claimed by the reports," he said.