KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA's biggest Islamic party, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), will back Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as parlimentary opposition leader, a top party official said on Wednesday.

'As a member of the (opposition alliance) Pakatan Rakyat, we will agree to support Anwar as opposition leader to replace his wife,' PAS secretary-general Kamarudin Jaffar said.

Anwar's life Major events in the life of Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, 61 1968: Mr Anwar emerges as a major political activist by helping to found the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, a leading students organisation. ... more Anwar resurrects career despite scandal KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday celebrated an election victory that will return him to parliament, boosting his plan to seize power after a decade-long political exile. Anwar, who had already led a revitalised opposition to unprecedented gains in March general elections, insists he is on track to topple the government by mid-September with the help of defecting lawmakers. ... more

Mr Anwar Ibrahim will be sworn in as a member of parliament on Thursday, his party said, after a landslide by-election victory that ended his decade-long political exile.

Mr Anwar, who was sacked as deputy premier in 1998 and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges, returns to parliament as the head of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance which controls a third of the lower house.

'The parliament speaker has said Anwar will be sworn in as an MP on Thursday,' said Mr Tian Chua, information chief of the Keadilan party which leads the three-member alliance.

'We will all be there to welcome Anwar as the leader of the opposition and the parliament will be very different with his voice,' he told AFP Wednesday.

'It is a real morale boost for the Pakatan Rakyat in parliament.'

Mr Anwar's strong showing in a Malaysian by-election has helped ease his path to the premiership, although tensions in his three-party coalition raise big questions as to whether he can deliver.

Malaysia's best-known opposition figure won a constituency vacated by his wife in an election on Tuesday by a larger than expected majority and is expected to try to take his seat in parliament on Thursday.

Mr Anwar, once a star of the government that has ruled Malaysia for five decades and who fell from grace after being convicted for corruption and sodomy in 1999 and 2000, won despite facing new sex charges.

'I am not sure that PAS (an Islamist party) is convinced that he can get 30 (government) MPs to cross over,' said Mr Terence Gomez, professor at the University of Malaya's Faculty of Economics and Administration.

Mr Anwar is part of a coalition that includes an ethnic Chinese party and the Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS). The coalition controls 82 seats in the 222-member parliament.

He has promised he can lure 30 legislators from the ruling the Barisan Nasional government to push through a parliamentary confidence vote on Sept 16 to take power.

PAS, which wants an Islamic state in the Southeast Asian country of 27 million people, has not formally endorsed him as the leader of the opposition coalition, whose surprisingly strong showing in elections in March deprived the government of its two-thirds parliamentary majority.

'...He (Anwar) will probably find that winning Permatang Pauh is the easy part. Becoming prime minister may be as elusive for him as it was before,' commentator Jocelin Tan wrote in the Star newspaper, referring to the ambitious former deputy premier.

Unsettled investors
Political uncertainty in Malaysia has scared off investors and pushed the stock market and the ringgit currency to 2008 lows.

A prolonged trial in the new sodomy case that starts on Sept 10 means it is unclear that Anwar will actually be free to lead the coalition.

In addition, the prospect that a rudderless and desperate Barisan Nasional government could try to spend its way to popularity is another reason to avoid Malaysian assets, analysts said.

Mr Anwar has pledged he will restore Malaysia's competitiveness in part by ending a system of affirmative action for ethnic Malays, which critics say has damaged the country's economic prospects.

'I think the main contents of his (Anwar's) policies are sound, and they do make sense economically over the long run because it should have a positive impact on Malaysia's competitiveness,' said Mr Alvin Pontoh, an economist at Capital Economics in London.

'But I do question his ability to deliver them when and if he does become prime minister, given that the opposition coalition that he leads is comprised of three parties with widely differing agendas and ideologies,' Mr Pontoh said. -- REUTERS