KLANG, July 27 — A controversial belly dance performed during a recent Tabung Harapan Malaysia fundraiser was not arranged by Pakatan Harapan (PH) or the Selangor government, said PKR’s Sungai Kandis candidate Zawawi Ahmad Mughni.

Fending off claims that his pact was promoting values incompatible with Islam and Malay norms, he also said he personally disagreed with the performance.

"The programme was not organised by us so I view the dance as contradictory to the culture that we are trying to inculcate. It is against both our cultural and religious principles.

"I disagree with what transpired and I have advised the organiser to be more sensitive to Malay and Islamic values,” he told a press conference at PKR operations centre today.

Umno’s Datuk Lokman Noor Adam who is also vying for the same seat had shared a short clip of the belly dance on his social media account yesterday and challenged his rival to state his stand on the belly dance, claiming it was organised by the PH coalition on July 25 to raise funds for Tabung Harapan.

The 15-second video that has since spread over the internet show a few skimpily-dressed women dancing.

PKR candidate Zawawi calls a poster of him supporting a belly dance purportedly organised by Pakatan Harapan as 'fake'.

A poster with Zawawi’s image with a screencaptured image of the belly dance in the background was later spotted on the campaign trail. 

The poster was captioned: "It is not haram if it is for good intention.”

It is unknown who created the poster and put it up in public.

Zawawi has decried the poster as fake, and urged the public to abide by the Islamic concept of "tabayyun”, which is to find out the facts instead of jumping to conclusions based on what they just see.

Quoting a Quranic verse, Zawawi also called on his political rivals to "fear God” and not spread rumours in order to win the people’s votes.

"Please fear God’s punishments. Remember: ‘Slander is a bigger sin than murder’. Don’t make up false stories just to win votes.

"The people also must not take everything they read or found online on the surface level only. Make your own research first,” he said.