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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 - Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will form committees for each ministerial portfolio rather than shadow ministers, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.

He said this in reply to a question from reporters on whether the opposition coalition would respond to calls by various NGOs to form a shadow Cabinet to monitor the performance of the government.

"We will nominate one person from each party to every portfolio," he said.

"So when we form government, we can choose from three candidates," he said in reference to his plans to topple the Barisan Nasional (BN) government as soon as possible.

This plan should allay the perception or at least delay the issue of PKR dominating a federal government formed by the tripartite opposition coalition where it is flanked by DAP and Pas.

During the Permatang Pauh by-election in August which saw the former Deputy Prime Minister returning to Parliament after a 10-year exile, a document purporting to be the proposed PR Cabinet had been circulated across the country.

There were two versions, one with DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang as one of three Deputy Prime Ministers behind Anwar, and another with Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

The other two deputies were PKR vice president R. Sivarasa and SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

This was decried by opposition supporters as a strategy to put DAP and Pas at odds with each other and to increase dissatisfaction with PKR, who have grown from having just one seat to 31 in Parliament, where it forms the largest bloc of opposition MPs.

The de facto PKR leader added that this was discussed last month and it was agreed to shadow the Cabinet.

Calling it a "shadow committee" rather than a "shadow Cabinet", he said the three-men committees would be announced soon.

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