JOHOR BAHRU, July 5 — Former Umno supreme council member Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi made a surprise appearance at a Pakatan Harapan (PH) youth event here last night.

He arrived at the Johor Youth Dialogue programme venue in Felda Ulu Tebrau at 9.40pm and was then greeted by PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

In his speech, the former Johor state assembly speaker and Rengit assemblyman said he attended the programme to fulfil a friend’s invitation.

On his decision to campaign for PH, Mohd Puad explained that he has since left Umno and is an old friend of Anwar.

“My attendance here tonight was also to express my support for PH’s Puteri Wangsa candidate Maszlee Malik,” said the outspoken 68-year-old politician

Earlier, Mohd Puad had openly declared his support with a campaign poster for PH’s Rengit candidate, Mohamad Yazid Bakri, for the Johor state election.

He said his decision was based on the candidate’s personality and not on partisan party lines.

Mohd Puad, once known as an Umno stalwart and staunch Barisan Nasional (BN) supporter, announced his exit from the party and its coalition on June 25.

Previously, he publicly accused caretaker Johor menteri besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who is also the state’s BN chairman, for non-compliance and deviation when announcing the dissolution of the state assembly, paving the way for the state election.

Following that, Umno secretary-general Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki claimed that Mohd Puad had threatened to leave the party if his son was not nominated for the Rengit seat ahead of the state poll.

In the 2022 Johor state election, Mohd Puad won the Rengit state seat with a 1,920-majority vote, defeating three other candidates from Perikatan Nasional (PN), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang).

He was previously the Batu Pahat MP and was Deputy Minister of Education II from 2009 to 2013 during Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s BN administration.

In the 2013 general election, he was defeated by the then Pakatan Rakyat (PR) candidate from PKR, Mohd Idris Jusi.

Mohd Puad later came to national prominence as the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) director-general from 2015 until his resignation in 2018 after he was not fielded as the Batu Pahat parliamentary candidate.