KUALA SELANGOR, June 5 — PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang sought to allay fears of an ulama-dominated central working committee today, explaining that there are still six posts where so-called professionals who lost can get appointed into.

Hadi, who was again re-elected after beating underdog Ahmad Awang, claimed that several of the victors labelled as pro-ulama, or the clergy class, are actually former academics, amid concerns that the results might put off non-Muslim voters.

“There is space according to PAS constitution, to appoint the secretary-general, deputy secretary-general, treasurer, information chief, appointed by the central committee. Six of them can still get appointed.

“This is a norm, even in past muktamar. This is where we link all of them,” Hadi told reporters at the sidelines of the 61^st PAS muktamar, or annual congress.

The Marang MP listed down newly-elected central working committee members Datuk Dr Mohamed Fadzli Hasan and Razman Zakaria as among those former academics.

“Negative assumptions on the non-Muslim voters are too early to tell. We are not yet in an election. There is still a long time,” Hadi said.

“And I get response from the non-Muslims, positive ones, not just negative. You cannot grade us yet now.”

The clergy class, or ulama, trounced party progressives in a near-total takeover of PAS last night, winning 22 out of the 23 posts open for contest in the Islamist party’s central working committee.

In his keynote address yesterday, the PAS president insisted that the party does not take a theocratic approach in which the Islamist party’s powerful clergy class cannot be questioned.

Faced with criticism against the conservatism of the PAS leadership, Hadi added that both the ulama and professionals need to be appreciated.