The Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) said it had no idea that Ikhlas had been deregistered when jointly presenting a memorandum to the home ministry recently, according to the Scoop website.

“We do not want the public to question our credibility for joining forces with an NGO that has been deregistered,” PPIM chief activist Nadzim Johan was quoted as saying. “Nor do we want to work with illegal NGOs. There are other NGOs whom we could work with.”

On Friday, the Registrar of Societies confirmed that Ikhlas was deregistered in November 2022 for failing to submit annual financial statements.

The society, which had listed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as its patron, was led by Ridzuan Abdullah, who is also on the secretariat of Gabungan Ikhlas Malaysia, a group which issued statements in early January on the addendum linked to Najib Razak.

Ridzuan recently claimed that the NGO did not receive any notice about its deregistration, and also stated that the Covid-19 pandemic made it difficult for Ikhlas to hold meetings and submit its financial statements.

Two years ago, it was reported that Ridzuan had been charged with 12 counts of filing fraudulent claims totalling RM378,000 to the Social Security Organisation to obtain incentives from the Penjana Kerjaya 2.0 Programme.