KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 — Barisan Nasional secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa has reiterated today that the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact will not be a formal entity as the name has already been taken by another organisation.

Annuar said the decision to not formalise the pact was made by the MN steering committee that involved PAS and Umno leaders.

"According to the records and minutes that are with me, we have made a decision. MN will not be registered as a political party.

"MN will be the platform for us to unite Muslims, which is not exclusive to Umno and PAS. It is open to all Malay and Muslim parties,” he was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini.

This comes after PAS vice-president Mohd Amar Abdullah reportedly said last month the effort for MN to be formalised will be delayed due to the aforementioned reason.

MN is a pact between Umno and PAS based on their cooperation on matters related to Islam and the Malay community formalising it to be a political coalition.

MN was meant to be formalised in May last year but this was preempted by the Covid-19 pandemic.