KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — PKR has confirmed it wants president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to replace embattled Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who has been at loggerheads with party leaders over his running of the country’s richest state.

“The decision is being made right now. Confirmed PKR nominates Kak Wan (Dr Wan Azizah), (PKR) will bring up officially in Pakatan Rakyat presidential council meeting on Wednesday,” PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil told The Malay Mail Online.

He said that PR’s presidential council meeting will be held after Parliament’s special sitting on the MH17 flight tragedy scheduled for tomorrow.

“PKR will bring one name to Majlis President Pakatan. Only one name,” Fahmi added.

PKR also confirmed the news through its official Twitter handle @KEADILAN, quoting PKR defacto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim: “Konsensus adalah utk kemukakan satu nama kpd Majlis Presiden Pakatan Rakyat.” @anwaribrahim (Consensus is to present one name to the PR presidential council).

“Nama yang dicadangkan ialah @drwanazizah.” @anwaribrahim (The name which has been suggested by PKR is Wan Azizah).

Although PKR may have decided on removing Khalid, the question remains whether PR allies PAS and DAP will accept Dr Wan Azizah’s nomination.

It is understood that while DAP is agreeable to replacing Khalid with the PKR president, top PAS leaders are not keen on the move and want him to remain as state mentri besar.

Khalid’s position as mentri besar has remained contentious since his own party, PKR, initiated the so-called “Kajang Move” to oust him from the position in March.

The move was ostensibly engineered to remove Khalid and to replace him with PKR’s de facto leader Anwar, who had intended to contest the Kajang state seat which was vacated in February.

But the “Kajang move” fell through after the appellate court overturned his sodomy acquittal and sentenced him to five years in jail, days before the by-election’s nomination. Anwar has filed for an appeal against this decision.

Although Anwar’s disqualification had then appeared to put to rest plans to remove Khalid, recent controversies involving the Selangor administration have prompted new agitations for his removal.

Among others, these include the still-unresolved row over the seizure of bibles in the state and Khalid’s perceived partiality towards the developers of the proposed Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) that is facing mounting resistance from state residents.

A major barrier to Khalid’s removal was the absence of a clear candidate to replace him, with Azizah previously being touted as the most likely candidate.