Rubbishing speculation of a rift with Hashim, Tuan Ibrahim said the PAS central leadership council still respected him as the spiritual leader of the party.

“If we look at the syura council, the party president (Abdul Hadi Awang) is a member and so am I. The PAS spiritual leader is not the syura council but its chairman. The council’s decisions are made by the council (members by consensus, not just the chairman).

“The spiritual leader’s views are his views. They aren’t necessarily the same as the syura council’s. But we respect the syura council and the spiritual leader,” he said, according to Sinar Harian.

Tuan Ibrahim also said that differences of opinion were normal in PAS and could be easily overcome. “That’s why we always meet to discuss matters,” he added.

“There are no issues between (Hadi) and (Hashim). They always meet and discuss things. Even if there are differences, we have platforms to overcome them. These are technical, not fundamental problems.”

Tuan Ibrahim also maintained that the syura council was not the executive decision-making body in PAS and that its role was simply to “direct the party as an adviser”.

“Any policy we want to implement is referred to the syura council to approve or reject, subject to whether it is contrary to Islamic law.”

Last month, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan also denied that there were rifts between the party’s central leadership and syura council, saying relations between both leadership groups were harmonious.

This came after Hashim questioned the haste of the PAS leadership’s decision to terminate the memberships of three former Perlis assemblymen last month for retracting support for then menteri besar Shukri Ramli.

Two days ago, Hashim took aim at the PAS central leadership again, saying an internal issue involving Shukri was first brought to the PAS central committee’s attention three years ago but nothing was done to address the matter.