PKR leaders continue to keep mum on the silent protest stage by PAS members and supporters after the Friday's prayers at Masjid Batu, Kampung Pertama yesterday.

PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar said the matter had been consistently addressed and that it would be tough for PKR to respond to every single thing that took place.

"We have very clear-cut instruction from the PAS hierarchy as all top PAS leaders are in full force to support us and we don't want to broach the subject anymore," she told a daily joint press conference on the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election at the Yayasan Aman here today.

It was reported yesterday that some 10,000 PAS members and supporters were in "silent protest" mode in Permatang Pauh and would not be supporting PKR candidate Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also PKR president, in the by-election on May 7.

She said that PKR would actually refer to the official PAS statement that had been made to support the PKR candidate in this by-election.

However, PKR Youth deputy chief Dr Afif Bahardin denied the group who had staged their protest yesterday were actual PAS members.

He said PAS division had sent out messages informing that the group were actually not their members as claimed.

"We will leave it to them to find out and resolve the matter," he said.

It was reported that the group were unhappy that DAP and PKR, PAS's partners in the Pakatan opposition pact, were not showing any respect to PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang in respect to his plan to move a Private Member's Bill in Parliament to push for the implementation of hudud laws in PAS-ruled Kelantan.

The Permatang Pauh by-election sees a four-cornered fight involving Suhaimi Sabudin from BN, Wan Azizah, Azman Shah Othman (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) and Salleh Isahak (Independent). Polling is on May 7.

- Bernama