AMPANG, July 26 — Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pledged his coalition’s continued support today for the Sabah government under Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal. 

Anwar, who is also the PKR president, said the coalition will meet soon with Shafie whose government is rumoured to be facing an attempt to engineer its collapse through defections.

"For us, it is Pakatan Harapan Plus. Our position is that he (Shafie) has the mandate, we will continue to support him,” he told reporters after launching the Keadilan Information Convention at De Palma Hotel here.

Anwar was responding to a reporter who asked whether PH would support Shafie in Sabah. 

Shafie was reportedly a party leader who did not support Anwar’s selection as the PH Plus candidate to be prime minister.

Shafie was also nominated for the same position by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after Anwar and PKR rejected the latter’s campaign to be reappointed as the PM.

Shafie’s nomination briefly caused a dilemma within the Sabah PKR, when state chairman Datuk Christina Liew initially said she felt compelled to support Shafie as a Sabahan over Anwar.

However, this was later resolved when the PKR chapters in Sabah and Sarawak declared support for Anwar.