In a statement today, PAS research director Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki said Mahathir had “victimised” the party when he was in power.

He said the Kelantan emergency declaration and opposition to the Shariah Criminal Code were among the things that Mahathir had used to pressure PAS in the past.

He said Mahathir needed to repent as well as disassociate himself from DAP, which was sabotaging the relationship between PAS and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).

Zuhdi said while PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin was working to consolidate the relationship between the two parties, Mahathir, the PPBM chairman, had fallen for DAP’s anti-Islamic ways.

“The PAS president (Abdul Hadi Awang) had previously urged everyone to save Malaysia the PAS way — by returning to the Islamic way,” he said.

But DAP and parties like it were an obstacle to PAS’s efforts to save Malaysia, he said.

“Efforts to redeem Islam as the solution to all the problems in this country will not succeed if DAP is involved.”

The report said Mahathir had said PPBM was open to the idea of having the Islamist party in the opposition bloc, even though he had previously said his party did not need to work with PAS in the general election.