Khalid says to push ahead with constitutional changes

January 10, 2011

Khalid did not address Pakatan’s lack of numbers needed to see the changes through. — file pic

SHAH ALAM, Jan 10 — The Selangor government will go ahead with the planned state assembly sitting at the end of this month to amend its state constitution despite facing the possibility of not securing a two-third majority needed for the amendment.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said the state government has appointed International Islamic University lecturer Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Bari and lawyer Datuk Param Cumaraswamy to prepare the draft for the amendment to Section 52 of the state constitution.

“It will be good if you wait (until the sitting convenes),” he told reporters here.

Khalid was asked why the state government was going ahead with the sitting knowing that it did not have the two-thirds majority required to pass an amendment to the constitution.

The opposition pact has 35 seats in the 56-seat assembly while Barisan Nasional has 20. The remaining seat is held by an independent assemblyman.

The state government needs the support of at least 37 assembly members to secure a two-thirds majority.

Khalid said Param and Abdul Aziz had recommended that the matter was not to be discussed in public until the time it was tabled at the state assembly.

Asked whether the proposed amendment would be presented to the Sultan of Selangor, Khalid it would depend on the recommendations of the lawyers involved.

He said the amendment was to give powers to the Selangor sultan and mentri besar over the appointment of the state’s top three civil servants, namely the state secretary, state financial officer and state legal advisor.

Earlier Khalid declared open the Selangor Anti-Trafficking In Persons Council. — Bernama