KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 (Sin Chew Daily) — Umno ministers met with the party's MPs Friday and managed to secure the agreement of 35 MPs to uphold the resolution passed in Umno general assembly to support the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government until parliament is dissolved.

Sin Chew Daily learned that Umno vice president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, who is also Defence Minister, met up with Umno MPs who are ministers and deputy ministers, while Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein met up with Umno MPs without ministerial posts, to discuss about upholding resolution passed in the Umno general assembly to support Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin until the parliament is dissolved.

Umno currently has 38 parliamentary seats. The three MPs who did not show up were former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Umno advisor Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Quoting sources, Astro Awani reported that 35 Umno MPs were in a meeting last night and agreed to uphold the resolution passed in the Umno general assembly held in March to support the PN government.

Earlier, Utusan Malaysia also quoted reliable sources from Umno that the party's central leadership met with its MPs in stages to request them to sign a declaration to withdraw from the PN government before 1 August. 

During the Umno general assembly held in March, the delegates passed the resolution for Umno and Barisan Nasional MPs to continue supporting PN government until parliament is dissolved. The resolution also requested the government to call for election after the Emergency is over.

Two MPs, Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (Machang) and Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz (Padang Renggas) had openly retracted their support for the PN government led by Muhyiddin. 

However, Nazri changed his stand on June 24, claiming that he was misled by Ahmad Zahid. He said he would abide by the resolution passed in the party's general assembly.