Ahmad Zahid Hamidi showered praises on his PAS counterpart Abdul Hadi Awang and the Islamic party's delegation following a meeting at the Umno president's residence in Kajang this morning.

Although the meeting was held behind closed doors, Zahid shed a little light on what transpired in a Facebook later.

Describing the meeting as positive, the first sentence in his post read, “Ada beberapa insan yang membuatkan dunia ini lebih baik kerana keberadaannya. Kalian adalah salah seorang dari insan tersebut (There are those who make the world a better place with their presence, all of you are among them).”

“A meeting and discussion between Umno leaders together with the PAS president and PAS leadership at my residence.

“The meeting and discussion were very positive and further strengthens the unity of the ummah (Muslim community),” he added.

Zahid also uploaded photographs of the meeting, among them, showing Hadi and him embracing each other.

The Umno leaders who attended were deputy president Mohamad Hasan, vice-presidents Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Mahdzir Khalid and Khaled Nordin, secretary-general Annuar Musa and treasurer Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

Apart from Hadi, PAS was represented by its vice-president Idris Ahmad and secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan.

After decades of bitter political enmity, Umno and PAS buried the hatchet after the last general election and formed an alliance which proved to be successful in three by-elections - Cameron Highlands, Semenyih and Rantau.

Both parties are scheduled to commemorate their partnership with a joint charter on Sept 14 at the Umno headquarters in the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Expecting a turnout of more than 10,000, the event would also see the presence of MCA and MIC leaders as well as PAS' allies in Gagasan Sejahtera.

Currently, Umno and BN have 40 parliament seats and PAS 18 seats.

The last time PAS and Umno worked together was in the 1970s when the Islamist party joined the BN government in 1972 before quitting five years later.