PETALING JAYA, Aug 20 — PAS’s coming general assembly is expected to return the party to the fold of veteran fundamentalists, given the present scenario where several liberals aligned to PKR de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim were voted out of mainstream politics.

There has been talk that former party deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa may be nominated to contest against incumbent deputy president Mohamed Sabu, better known as Mat Sabu.

Many leaders like Datuk Husam Musa, Zulkifli Ahmad and even Mat Sabu failed to win seats at the 13th general election and have fallen out of the mainstream national political scenario.

This failure has affected their positions within the party as members would like to see or choose leaders who are in the mainstream political scene, and leaders who did not contest but are still relevant enough to steer the party to its original objectives.

Given the current scenario where Islam is now a subject of debate and Muslims are being put on the defensive in many incidents, the young party members and veterans loyal to president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang are now ready to “fight” the battle and uphold Islam and its principles.

They are tired of the verbal spats with DAP on Islamic values and principles before the general election, and now want leaders who stick to the party’s principles and objectives under any situation.

In this respect, ulama chief Datuk Dr Harun Taib has overtaken Husam and other liberals who had appeared prominently in the media before the May 5 general election.

There is also talk that Husam may even go for the deputy president’s post to unseat Mat Sabu and give the group aligned to Anwar more credibility.

But there has still been no move whatsoever from this group given the failure of Husam’s last “mission”, which was to take the Kuala Besut state seat away from Barisan Nasional (BN).

Given the circumstances, the veterans and young party members may bring back Nasharuddin Mat Isa as deputy president, a scenario acceptable to a majority of the veteran fundamentalists in the party.