MELAKA, June 14 — There is no need to pressure Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali to go on leave, said PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar, who is also Port Dickson MP, said pressuring the PKR deputy president to do so would not have a positive impact to the leadership of the party and country but instead would only aggravate the situation.

"I do not agree that Mohamed Azmin should take a break from carrying out his government and party duties like called for by certain parties including the Otai Reformasi reform movement, in fact, this was not discussed at PKR’s political bureau meeting.

"We (in PKR) do not stop people from criticising because the party practices a free political culture. Everyone can put forward their views, but my advice is to make less statements and give way to the investigations that are already ongoing,” he said.

He told this to reporters when met at the Aidilfitri open house hosted by the Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary constituency at the Melaka International Trade Centre (MITC), Ayer Keroh here today.

Also present was Deputy Primary Industries Minister and Hang Tuah Jaya MP Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin.

Otai Reformasi earlier today had demanded that Putrajaya ask Mohamed Azmin to go on leave in the wake of sex videos that allegedly implicated him.

Asked if the controversy affected him, Anwar such accusations were nothing new to him.

"In politics, I have been through this for 20 years. I see it in the context of the party as a minor thing. Perhaps (the accusations against Mohamed Azmin) is the work of people without positions, lost in elections,” he said.

Video clips went viral on social media this week allegedly showing Mohamed Azmin in sex acts with another man. — Bernama