KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Jailed opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should accept the fact that he has exhausted all legal avenues in his sodomy case and serve his time, veteran Umno leader Tan Sri Rais Yatim said today.

Rais said Anwar is not the only public figure who was subjected to criminal investigations, stressing that disgraced former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Harun Idris was subjected to the same legal system when the latter was jailed for corruption in 1976.

"How can you come up now and expect others to follow your example when you yourself do not respect the system to which you have submitted yourself? That is very vital," Rais said on the sidelines of a news conference to announce dates for the Muzika Nusantara show in Istana Budaya next week.

Earlier today, PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said MPs with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will hold a protest if Anwar is barred from attending the next parliamentary meeting which starts next week.

The opposition has insisted that Anwar has the right to attend Parliament despite his incarceration, as his status as Permatang Pauh MP and opposition leader still stands until the Yang di-Pertuan Agong decides on an application by the senior politician's family for clemency.

Rais today argued that the application for a royal pardon has nothing to do with the legal process that dealt with Anwar's eventual sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence.

Rais, a former minister and now socio-cultural advisor to Putrajaya, stressed that Malaysians must understand that the law cannot be compromised by "political sympathy".

"If you want to make an appeal, it is a non-legal issue. It is a prerogative of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to listen to it. But in the meantime, the operation of the law had been completed.

"He should serve his time and respect the law of the country... we should be finishing this issue, and let Malaysia face a new era," he said.

On February 10, the Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s 2014 ruling that reversed Anwar’s acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, and sentenced the Permatang Pauh lawmaker to five years’ jail.

He remains an MP and federal opposition leader pending the outcome of the petition for a royal pardon filed on his behalf by his family.