Eight BN assemblymen, two from PH sworn in as Pahang Exco

PEKAN: The son of former Prime Minister, Datuk Mohamad Nizar Mohd Najib was among 10 Pahang assemblymen who took their oath as members of the State Executive Council (Exco) at Istana Abu Bakar here today.

Mohamad Nizar who is also Peramu Jaya assemblyman was one of the eight UMNO assemblymen appointed as executive councillors while two represented Pakatan Harapan (PH) comprising one each from PKR and DAP.

The Presentation of the Instrument of Appointment and Swearing-in ceremony was held before Pahang Regent Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah will grace a banquet held after the ceremony.

Also present were the Tengku Arif Bendahara Tengku Muhammad Iskandar Ri'ayatuddin Shah, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail and Pahang State Secretary Datuk Seri Dr Sallehuddin Ishak.

Mohamad Nizar who was among the four new faces fielded by BN in the 15th general election (GE15) was appointed as executive councillor apart from Fadzli Mohamad Kamal, Dong assemblyman, Datuk Johari Harun (Pelangai) and Datuk Sabariah Saidan (Guai).

Also appointed to the exco was Razali Kassim (Muadzam Shah) while three others who had served in the last exco were Datuk Seri Mohd Soffi Abdul Razak (Benta), Datuk Seri Syed Ibrahim Syed Ahmad (Kerdau) and Datuk Mohammad Fakhruddin Mohd Ariff (Bebar).

The PKR assemblyman appointed is Sim Chon Siang (Teruntum) while Leong Yu Man (Triang) represents DAP.

BN and PH agreed to form the Pahang state government after the results of GE15 saw a hung assembly for the first time after no party obtained a simple majority of 22 seats to form the state government.

In GE15, BN won 16 seats, one less than Perikatan Nasional (PN) while PH received eight in the 42-seat state legislative assembly.

Nonetheless, polling for the Tioman seat was postponed to Dec 7 following the death of PN candidate Md Yunus Ramli, 61, at 3.30 am on polling day on Nov 19 believed to be due to a heart attack.

However, the result of the Tioman seat would not enable any political bloc from getting a simple majority.

-- BERNAMA