Phahrolrazi Zawawi

Dato' Haji Phahrolrazi bin Haji Zawawi (born 8 September 1953) is a Malaysian politician. He holds the State Assembly seat of Pengkalan Kundor for the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). After the 2008 election he was appointed as a member of the Executive Council of the Malaysian state of Kedah, chairing the Committee for Rural Development, Entrepreneur and Public Works. In 2012 he was moved to the Housing and Local Government, Water Supply and Energy Resources portfolio.[1] His term in the Executive Council ended when PAS lost power in the 2013 election, although he held on to his seat in the State Assembly. After the election he resigned as the deputy commissioner of PAS in Kedah.[2]

Pharolrazi is a leading figure in the moderate 'Erdogan' faction of PAS, named after the Turkish Prime Minister and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. During PAS's term in state government from 2008 to 2013, he emerged as a leadership rival to the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) Azizan Abdul Razak, of the party's conservative ulama faction.[3][4] The breakdown in the relationship between Pharolrazi and Azizan led to Pharolrazi to refuse reappointment as a member of the Executive Council in 2012, before rejoining the council after a brief period.[5] In 2014 he formed PasMa, a splinter movement of the national party formed by members of the Erdogan faction concerned that the party's conservative leadership might cause a breakdown in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition between PAS, Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party and the Democratic Action Party.[6]