Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor today claimed he no longer held any stake in a highland resort in Pahang which housed slot machines.

He told malaysiakini that he disposed his 64 million shares in Bukit Tinggi Resort Sdn Bhd when he was appointed as deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department two years ago.

The Umno executive secretary and party Federal Territory chief was made a full minister last November.

"I have no stake in the company," he said when asked to comment o­n the claim by PAS leader Husam Musa that Tengku Adnan was the second biggest shareholder in the resort.

'Not true'

"I deny the allegations that I still own a stake in the company," he added when met after the Umno supreme council meeting at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

"I sold them all after being appointed deputy minister," he added but refused to elaborate.

A malaysiakini report earlier quoted Husham as claiming that a subsidiary of the state government - Pasdec Corporation - also owned a stake in the resort.

The Kubang Kerian MP said the company's 46 million shares made it the third biggest shareholder while the biggest shareholder is Berjaya Group Bhd chairperson Vincent Tan, a close associate of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Husam backed his claim with documents from the Companies Commission of Malaysia. The documents, which included a list of shareholders, was based o­n documents submitted by Bukit Tinggi Resort to the commission o­n Feb 10 this year.

Psychological warfare

Meanwhile, Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob also claimed that Pasdec had disposed its shares two years ago before the slot machines were introduced.

National news agency Bernama quoted him as saying that the allegation was a "psychological warfare" tactic employed by certain quarters who wanted the people to hate the Barisan Nasional government.

Commenting o­n the accusation that he as menteri besar was not aware of the approval given to the resort to operate slot machines although he was the State Development Corporation chairperson, Adnan said it was not necessary that every action taken by the federal government is known to the state government.

He added that this is because the federal and state governments have their own jurisdictions and there should be no intervention.

"If we want to entertain o­ne by o­ne of the false allegations by these people, forever we cannot do our work. Therefore, we should forget about the accusations and focus o­n the state's development," he said.

On Tuesday, Mahathir said the government had o­nly issued a license for the resort to operate 250 slot machines and not a casino.

However, PAS reacted that slot machines were also instruments of gambling and this led the government to order the resort to temporarily cease its operation of these machines pending further instruction from the premier.