Leaders from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) are adamant on meeting their de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim at the Sungai Buloh Prison where he is serving his five-year sentence for sodomy, despite their application being turned down by the Prisons Department.
Yesterday, the Pakatan Rakyat component party sent out an invitation to the press, stating that PKR leaders, along with several representatives from their partners in the DAP and PAS, would be meeting Anwar in person today.
“I wrote to the prisons department last week, asking for permission.
“So there has not been a reply, but we will still go there and wait at the gate. And hopefully they will let us in,” PKR chief whip Johari Abdul told The Malay Mail Online outside Parliament earlier today.
At the time of this writing, Opposition MPs are still waiting outside the prison gates, hoping to be granted entry to see Anwar.
They are likely there to ask for guidance and mediation from Anwar regarding the tumultuous split between Pakatan partners PAS and DAP, who are now at loggerheads over the PAS-led Kelantan state government’s push for Islamic hudud law, the Bill for which was passed in the state legislative assembly in Kota Bharu on March 16.
While the DAP is firmly opposed to hudud law, and has decided to cut off all cooperation with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, DAP has stated that it would not be exiting the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. PAS has similarly said it would not abandon the partnership, despite throwing barbs of its own in the direction of the DAP.
Anwar’s application for a royal pardon freeing him from prison had been decided last Friday, as had been informed by the High Court to Anwar’s legal team.
While lawyers on both sides of the case declined to reveal what the Pardons Board had ruled, indications seem to point to Anwar’s petition being unsuccessful.
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