KOTA BARU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Former Kelantan Mentri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat is in stable condition but remains unconscious, his son has confirmed.

"He is critical and he needs to be in intensive care,'' said Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz

"Doctors have done their best and my father is stable but he's unconscious," he told reporters after visiting the PAS spiritual adviser in hospital on Tuesday.

He said his father was warded due to prostate cancer and the 83-year-old had undergone chemotherapy in 2012.

"He is on a breathing support machine and I did not talk to him because he was unconscious," he said.

Nik Abduh, a PAS central committee member, also said his father's health had begun to deteriorate in December last year.

Nik Aziz helmed the Kelantan government for 23 years as Chempaka assemblyman under the Pengkalan Chepa constituency.

He retired in 2013 and was replaced by his deputy, Datuk Ahmad Yakob, after the 13th general election when he beat Barisan candidate Wan Razman Wan Abd Razak by a majority of 6,500 votes.