PAS' delay in delivering its Selangor assemblypersons' statutory declarations (SD) in support of PKR's Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as menteri besar is on no consequence, for she already has the requisite numbers.
 
"I think the 30 SDs (that Wan Azizah now possesses) are more than enough.

"It does not matter if PAS drags its feet in signing the letters of support for Wan Azizah," constitutional law expert Abdul Aziz Bari said last night.
 
Commenting on the latest apparent stumbling block to decisively end the Selangor menteri besar crisis, the professor (right) called the 30 SDs the "stone that kills several birds".
 
"The legal implication of the SDs is also important: they take away the discretion of the sultan in appointing the menteri besar.
 
"The existence of the SDs makes the role of the sultan now purely formal and ceremonial," he said in a statement.
 
Aziz said the SDs had two major legal implications for the sultan not to dissolve the state assembly, a move that incumbent Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim is speculated to make as his last ditch effort to remain in office.
 
Aziz said: Firstly, there is already a government (and with Wan Azizah as the menteri besar-designate) that can be formed or appointed from the existing House.
 
"Secondly, Khalid no longer has the legal right to make a request to dissolve the state assembly," he said.
 
"It appears that the SDs are virtually a stone that has killed two (or even more) birds!"

PAS to convene meeting tomorrow

Despite PAS' verbal endorsement of Wan Azizah, 13 of its state assemblypersons have yet to put their for her support in writing.

PAS will only convene a meeting tomorrow to decide whether to allow its assemblypersons to make the written understaking.

The Islamic party has 15 assemblypersons in Selangor but two of its state assemblypersons - Saari Sungib (Hulu Kelang) and Hasnul Baharuddin (Morib, left) - have already signed the SDs after they unilaterally declared their backing for Wan Azizah.

Aziz said any additional letter of support from 13 more PAS state assemblyperson would only bolster Wan Azizah and their absence was no reason to reject her as menteri besar.

"I don't think such is good enough for the sultan to argue that the support for Wan Azizah is not soli, since the (state) constitution requires merely 29 seats to constitute the majority.

"I now think that it is not good enough for the sultan either to ask for a second name or to go for a dissolution," Aziz added.

Furthermore, he added the sultan also cannot reject Wan Azizah on the basis of gender as it is prohibited under Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution.

Aziz said PAS teetering may be political but it was giving wrong signal to the palace and does not bode well for PAS and Pakatan.