KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Pakatan Rakyat has not chosen a candidate to contest the Permatang Pauh seat despite a meeting of the pact’s Penang federal lawmakers, a DAP MP said today.

DAP’s Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari, who confirmed the meeting, also said that the final decision belonged to PKR, whose de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had held the seat until his disqualification this week.

“We had a meeting yesterday, but it was not about who to field, as that is a PKR decision,” he told Malay Mail Online via text message today.

He also declined to comment on the possible candidates that may be put forward for the contest.

The Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat was declared vacant on Wednesday by Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia after Anwar’s petition for a royal pardon over his sodomy conviction was rejected.

Anwar was jailed for five years on February 10 when his appeal to the Federal Court against his sodomy conviction was dismissed.

PKR has held the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat for 17 years since Anwar’s first incarceration in 1998. Anwar held the seat for four terms before that, under the Umno ticket, since 1982.

Anwar’s wife and PKR president, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, then led the newly formed Parti KeAdilan Nasional in 1998 to win the seat and held it for three terms until she made way for her husband in 2008.

Anwar then held it for two terms under PKR until he was disqualified as MP earlier this week.