“Why didn’t Wan Fayhsal, who was a former deputy minister, criticise (former prime minister) Muhyiddin Yassin and block that transaction?” Ammar said, referring to EPF launching a US$600 million shariah private equity fund partly managed by BlackRock in 2021.

“It is utterly disgusting that he is using the suffering of Palestinians and the Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) issue as his political tool for personal gain,” he said in a statement today.

He said the call by the Bersatu Youth chief for the government to halt the sale of MAHB shares to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), owned by New York City-based investment firm BlackRock, was misleading, and his move was to slow down Malaysia’s progress for his own political gain.

Ammar said the proposed development would work to retain all 39 local airport assets in the hands of Malaysians.

He said the deal structure would mean that 70% equity of MAHB will be owned by Khazanah Nasional and EPF, while only Malaysian nationals can be the board CEO and chairman.

He also said that should MAHB relist on Bursa Malaysia, then GIP has an “exit strategy” to divest its stake to local investors.

“Wan Fayhsal should remember that BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and has held equity stakes in various listed companies in Malaysia for decades.

“Its holdings in Malaysia’s equity and bond markets are too significant for us to drive them out.

“Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is knowledgeable and will not allow any foreign entity to dominate the nation’s key assets,” he said.