KJ's resignation to be referred to Armed Forces Council

The resignation of former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin as commander of the 508 Regiment of the Territorial Army will be taken up with the Armed Forces Council.

In saying this, Armed Forces chief General Zulkifli Zainal Abidin said the military did not have any restriction against reserve officers resigning.

"Reserve officers can do that as they are not regular soldiers.

"They can apply to be commissioned and they can also do the same when they want to quit," he told a press conference during Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu's visit to the Royal Military College in Kuala Lumpur tonight (photos, above).

Zulkifli was asked to comment on Khairy's resignation from the army reserve unit which he (Khairy) announced with an Instagram post earlier today.

"However, the process in the defence ministry is different. They can't just simply be let go. The resignation would have to go through some processes including being referred to the Armed Forces Council (for a decision)," said Zulkifli.

Mohamad during the media conference after his visit reiterated that he will not meddle in a MACC investigation on his political aide who is being probed over RM800,000 received to allegedly settle his (the aide's) bankruptcy order.

"The executive will not meddle in their (MACC) matters," he said.

It was reported that the aide was called in by MACC after several parties paid over RM800,000 to get the man out of bankruptcy.

The anti-graft body had also called in 10 other people to facilitate their investigation including several defence contractors.

Sources said MACC was investigating if the payments were made with the intention to secure projects from the defence ministry. -Mkini