PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said the party remained strong and intact despite being tested with various challenges, including being betrayed by those who had been with the party before.

In this regard, he explained that PAS is not just a 'stopover' which they can leave to pursue something else that purportedly would benefit them, whenever the party is being threatened.

"They made PAS a 'stopover' because they wanted an easy victory, but PAS remains intact and never fall.

"PAS is mature in politics because we have cooperate with many parties since long ago and despite abandoning and being abandoned, we remain 'istiqomah' (consistent) and continue to mature," he said in his winding-up speech at the 66th PAS Muktamar (general assembly) at Pusat Tarbiah Islamiah Kelantan (PUTIK) in Pengkalan Chepa here today.

The one-day general assembly took place in new normal with the presence of about 400 delegates in compliance with the standard operating procedures of the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, Abdul Hadi said during the general election in 1990, PAS cooperated with Semangat 46 and won in Kelantan, and then the party was dissolved, but PAS remained strong in the state until now.

"... because of our consistency, we remain strong and finally we take over Terengganu and together with the Perikatan Nasional in Kedah," he said.

He said PAS would continue to explain about the party's struggle so that the people, especially non-Muslims, could understand the situation and not make interpretations that Islam is old-fashioned.

"This approach takes time and it is very challenging. It is for them to really understand," he said

Meanwhile, PAS deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the allocation and distribution of electoral seats in the next general election should not be turned into polemic.

"As for the distribution of seats, we have several committees. First, we have the main committee comprising 11 people from each party, under it there is the technical committee comprising five people per party and a new committee that we have just set up namely the seat distribution consultative committee consisting five people from each party.

"In our first meeting, Alhamdulillah, the basics of the discussion are looking positive," he said when winding-up debate at the general assembly.

-- BERNAMA