GEORGE TOWN, March 8 — A tenant trying to remain in her people’s housing project (PPR) unit in Taman Manggis here meant for the destitute admitted to having previously flown in business class after her tickets were shared online.

Social media users earlier scraped images from the Facebook page of Khalidah Nazir Ahmad, which included pictures of her business class tickets on a Malaysia Airlines flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2014 as well as her frequent flyer status with the national carrier.

The Facebook page has since been deleted.

An image purportedly taken from the Facebook page of Khalidah Nazir Ahmad.

When met at Komtar, she admitted to travelling business class in 2014 but she insisted she did not pay.

Instead, she claimed to have been upgraded using the frequent flyer points of her brother, a shop owner.

The 63-year-old also claimed she had worked in a travel agency previously and was travelling then with her husband, who had worked as a clerk.

"What has this got to do with the eviction? This is none of anyone’s business,” she said when asked why she was listed as a frequent flyer with the airline.

Khalidah is one of the eight Taman Manggis tenants who were evicted and had staged a sit-in on the ground floor of Komtar since Wednesday.

The state housing committee evicted 22 tenants from the PPR flats on Wednesday after discovering their ineligibility to occupy the units specifically intended for hardcore poor families earning under RM1,500 a month.

The auditor-general had flagged the issue after concluding that ineligible tenants were residing in some units even as qualified recipients remained on a waiting list.

Of the 22, seven vacated after the notice, seven more are appealing, while Khalidah and her group chose to occupy the ground floor of Komtar to show their displeasure.

Today, the state government finally relented and allowed the group to return to their units and collect their personal items until Sunday.

However, the group are refusing this and insist they will remain in Komtar unless they receive confirmation that they will be allowed to remain in their PPR units indefinitely.

Lawyer Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz, whom the group engaged to represent them, claimed the eviction was illegal and executed without a court order.

"The eviction was against Section 7 (2) of the Specific Relief Act 1950 and Article 13 of the Federal Constitution,” he said.

He added that he has served notice of the matter to State Secretary Datuk Seri Farizan Darus today.

The group are accusing the state government of trespass and acting unlawfully.

The lawyer said the evicted tenants were entitled to sue the state government over the eviction.