Thursday July 3, 2008

Azmin: Anwar will be PM by Sept 16

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR’s plan to make Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim Prime Minister by Sept 16 is still on track, said the party's vice-president Azmin Ali.

The Gombak MP, however, said with the latest allegations hurled against the de facto leader, there was some “slowing down of the process”.

“I spoke last night to the four Barisan Nasional MPs who want to crossover and they said their commitment has not wavered even with the latest fiasco. So far, there is no change. We are still on track,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

Deep discussion: Azmin (right) chatting with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz at the Parliament lobby Wednesday.

He said following a rally in Shah Alam on Tuesday night, they would be holding similar gatherings in Penang on Saturday and Kuala Lumpur a day after.

He did not dismiss the possibility of street protests.

“Maybe we will use this forum for people to express their anger over what is happening and what is done by the present (Federal Government) leadership,” he said.

Azmin also said they were considering the possibility that the Federal Government might use this as an excuse to crack down on PKR.

He denied that Anwar had orchestrated the sodomy accusations himself so as to draw the sympathy of the Malays, as what happened 10 years ago.

He said PKR had enough evidence of the people behind the accusations, adding that PKR president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had handed over proof to the Prime Minister.

In an interview at the lobby, Balik Pulau MP Yusmadi Yusuf called for the suspension of Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan pending investigations into the role they played in allegedly trying to cover up the assault on Anwar in 1998.

Yusmadi, who is from PKR, said the suspension was important as it would have a bearing on the “conduct of the investigations”.