PKB prays for solidarity

The National Awakening Party (PKB), under Muhaimin Iskandar,has been holding daily prayer sessions in an effort to maintain party solidarity, a party official says.

“We are told to hold mass prayers here at our headquarters, as instructed by our ulemas, to maintain party solidarity through the current heated political situation,” PKB deputy secretary-general Zainul Munasichin said Wednesday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Dozens of party members from Jakarta and other regions have attended the prayer sessions, which are scheduled to run until next month.

When asked whether the prayers were also aimed at asking for divine intervention to prevent PKB ministers in the Cabinet from being dismissed, Munasichin denied speculation, saying that such intentions were never the party's priority.

The PKB was founded by the late former president Abdurrahman Wahid in an effort to net the votes of around 40 million Nahdlatul Ulama members, Indonesia's largest Muslim mass organization.

However, the party's management had differing opinions on certain issues, and Wahid eventually dismissed PKB chief Muhaimin Iskandar, who is also his relative.

Muhaimin rejected the dismissal and then split from the party to form his own branch of the PKB, while Wahid’s PKB is now led by his daughter, Yenny Zanuba Wahid.