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Parti Islam SeMalaysia
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (Malay: Parti Islam Se-Malaysia), commonly known as PAS or Pas, is an Islamist political party in Malaysia and is currently headed by Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang. PAS positions itself as an Islamist party that aims to establish Malaysia as a country based on Islamic legal theory derived from the primary sources of Islam, the Quran and Sunnah, as opposed to Barisan Nasional's Islam Hadhari, which PAS sees as based on a watered-down understanding of Islam.
The party enjoys strong support from northern rural and conservative area such as Kelantan and Terengganu. It is also the first opposition party in independent Malaysia's history to defeat the Barisan Nasional coalition in a Malay dominated state. In 1999, riding a groundwell of popular protest after the arrest and conviction of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, PAS allied itself with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Keadilan, founded by Anwar Ibrahim's wife Wan Azizah by forming a coalition known as Barisan Alternatif. In the general election, PAS took over Terengganu from the incumbent Barisan Nasional.
In the 2004 Malaysian general election, the party's strength was greatly reduced.[1] It won merely seven parliamentary seats, a significant decrease from the 27 parliamentary seats it had won in the 1999 general election. The party leader, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang even lost his parliamentary seat while one of the seven seats was won because a Barisan Nasional candidate was disqualified on a technicality. PAS also lost control of Terengganu but retained control of Kelantan with a very slim majority of 24 out of 45 seats. [2]. The party's majority in Kelantan's state assembly was further reduced to 23 seats following the Pengkalan Pasir by-election in 2005. At the present, PAS only has the majority of one seat in the state assembly.