The Islamic party’s spiritual leader Hashim Jasin said the party is willing to work with any parties that agree a Muslim must help the pact.
His interpretation of the political co-operation with any parties clearly means a ‘non-Muslim’ should not be in the leadership of Malaysia or of any coalition with the PAS.
He did not rule out the possibility of establishing a political co-operation with the ruling Umno, a party that was willing to support and address Islamic issues, he said.
Hashim, who is relatively unknown to the masses, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had used Islamic verses during his budget speech last year, thus qualifying him and his party to the PAS’ standard of Islam.
The PAS has said it is contesting at least 100 seats in the next general elections, hoping to win 40 seats and forming a strong coalition with the Umno in the future.
The aim of the PAS is to garner sufficient votes to weaken the opposition pact Pakatan Harapan and to consolidate its foundations in the Parliament in order to get the votes needed to push for the RUU355 or the amendments to the Islamic laws in Malaysia.
The PAS has also broken its coalition with the party of Anwar Ibrahim, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat or Justice Party citing violations of several terms of their agreement by the opposition partner.
It said the PKR campaigned against the party in by-elections won by the Umno, supported a break-away party from the PAS the members of which the Islamists has disinherited among the violations.
But the PAS campaigned openly against PKR’s leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in the Permatang Pauh elections in Penang and openly brought down half a dozen PKR members in the 2013 elections.
Yet they use Islamic terms to discredit the PKR for supporting the obvious in the polls against the Umno.
The Islamist party’s central committee will now decide on whether the members of the PAS who are still supporting the Selangor State government which is under the PKR would remain PAS members or would be fired.
The party members who are Selangor executive councillors in the state assembly and are members of the cabinet of the Chief Minister Azmin Ali helped the latter foil a plot to overthrow him two weeks ago.
According to news reports, the plot was orchestrated by a former PKR member who was Chief Minister before Azmin took over.
Earlier, the Islamic party had announced that it will run for 80 seats in the next election, but after its break with the Justice Party, its goal has increased to 100 seats as it sees greater opportunities in the general elections.
The party’s propaganda director Nasruddin Hassan said out of the 100 seats, 40 seats are easy to win the seats.
But he later said the Islamists can even win more than 60 to 80 seats, because “we have human resources.”
He said the PAS will win even if there is a three-way fight in the upcoming polls, and that it is capable of defeating both the opposition and the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.