'No split among Pakatan top leaders' - Malaysiakini

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim reiterated that the Pakatan Rakyat leadership is committed to strengthening the coalition despite reports that there was a rift among its top leaders.

"The commitment given by the party leadership is clear. We will fix whatever weaknesses that are there by working together as a team," said Anwar at a joint press conference with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang.

As a sign of their commitment, top guns from DAP and PAS were also at the press conference, including PKR vice-president Azmin Ali and Zaid Ibrahim, who is in charge of drafting Pakatan's common policy framework.

"I have no worries about the commitment of the leadership to continue and strengthen corporation with Pakatan, but we do agree that sometimes there are uneasiness at the ground level," he said.

Anwar cautioned that differences between the coalition's leaders or at the grassroot level has to be settled amicably and through the available avenues.

"We will not tolerate any action or statements that can cause our relationship to become murky, especially at the ground level.

"I'm not at all worried about the relationship we have at the central stage but Umno will definitely continue to play up the issue," said Anwar.

Anwar also denied speculations of a rift between Azmin, who is having problems with Sabah PKR leaders and Zaid, who had visited Sabah despite claiming that he was barred to do so by the party leadership.

Azmin was quoted in media reports today as saying that Zaid was not stopped by anyone in the party from attending party events in Sabah.

He urged Zaid to clarify what he meant when he said party adviser Anwar Ibrahim had not given his consent to Zaid to visit the state.

Anwar announced that Pakatan Rakyat will hold a convention in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 12 and 13 to be attended by 1,500 delegates.

"We will kick off with the special convention for the youth on Dec 12 and the Pakatan meeting will be held the next day," he said.

Perak BN's budget will not be legitimate

Meanwhile, Bukit Gantang PAS parliamentarian and ousted Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin confirmed that all 28 Perak assemblypersons will attend the state assembly sitting on Oct 28.

However, Nizar said that Pakatan will not table their own budget for the state's expense although the assembly is to focus on the budget allocation for the state.

Budget 2010 will been tabled on Oct 23 by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

"We received letters from S Ganesan (BN speaker) who has sent out 59 letters to state assemblypersons from Perak to attend the sitting on Oct 28. The letters were dated Oct 12.

"We also received letters from rightful speaker V Sivakumar who sent them out to 49 state assemblypersons. His letters were dated Oct 13.

"We have decided (to attend) based on the notice of the sitting by Sivakumar, so all 28 assemblypersons including the speaker will attend the sitting," said Nizar (right).

He stressed that Sivakumar was still the legitimate speaker, and Ganesan was just a pretender to the post.

"He's not the rightful speaker as he was not appointed lawfully. Sivakumar has lodged a report against him," said Nizar.

Asked on what will happen to the budget tabled by BN on Oct 28, Nizar said: "What will happen on Oct 28 is something that will make things worse as Ganesan is not the rightful speaker.

"If he approves the budget, then it's not legitimate. If the sitting continues... we will have other problems too because on Nov 5, the Federal Court decides on who the real menteri besar of Perak is."

"If BN continues with the budget and the court declares Nizar as the rightful MB, what will happen to the budget approved by BN?," added Beruas DAP MP Ngeh Khoo Ham.