Akmal said Umno had repeatedly urged PAS to focus on strengthening the Muafakat Nasional pact the two Malay-Muslim parties shared prior to the 2022 general election.

However, he said PAS preferred to bolster its alliance with Bersatu under PN.

“Today, you see each other’s true colours, getting stabbed in the back,” he said, referring to eight PN assemblymen retracting support for Perlis menteri besar Shukri Ramli.

“Just dissolve PN and revive MN. How about that?” he said in a Facebook post.

The MN alliance was signed by Umno and PAS in 2019, in what was seen as a major breakthrough in consolidating Malay political power after decades of enmity between the two parties.

However, following the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government and the appointment of Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister in 2020, PAS decided to work with Bersatu to form PN, which Umno viewed as a betrayal.

PAS also insisted on roping Bersatu into MN, which Umno opposed. The pact eventually ended in December 2022 with Umno going on to back PKR president Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister.

PAS leaders have repeatedly brought up the idea of reviving MN, although the Islamic party’s president, Abdul Hadi Awang, said this must not involve Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in any way.

Quit unity govt and we’ll relaunch MN

PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari said he wholeheartedly agreed with Akmal’s call to revive MN, adding that it would be a crucial step towards “uniting the ummah”.

“Once Umno-Barisan Nasional declare that they’re leaving the alliance with PH, we can relaunch MN,” he said in a Facebook post.

He added that negotiations should be resumed through a committee comprising leaders from both PAS and Umno.