Azalina Othman Said (BN-Pengerang) is temporarily chairing the evening session of today’s Dewan Rakyat sitting upon the request of speaker Azhar Azizan Harun.
This comes under Standing Order 7(3) which states that the speaker may ask a member of the House to chair the sitting temporarily, and this member shall be invested with all the powers of the speaker.
Azalina (above) revealed this when MPs expressed confusion that the former deputy speaker had returned to chair the session.
M Karuppaiya (Harapan-Padang Serai) and Lim Lip Eng (Harapan-Kepong) had both congratulated Azalina on returning as a deputy speaker when they realised she was chairing the session again, while Hassan Karim (Harapan-Pasir Gudang) urged for an explanation.
Shaking her head in disagreement when the congratulations were offered to her, Azalina said she was only asked to chair the session temporarily.
“This is only temporary, just for a while. So on Monday or Tuesday, it might be someone else (chairing),” she added.
Azalina had resigned as the Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker in August, saying that she wanted a “reset” in Parliament as well as someone from the opposition to replace her.
The government has since nominated Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian) for the position while the opposition put forth Nga Kor Ming (Harapan-Teluk Intan) as its candidate.
The election of the new deputy speaker was listed first on yesterday’s order paper, but it has been postponed to the next Parliament meeting when Budget 2022 will be tabled.
De facto Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said this is because the government wanted to amend the Federal Constitution to create a third deputy speaker post for the opposition.
At the time, Pakatan Harapan MPs had called for the appointment to be fast-tracked, as leaving the deputy speaker seat vacant would increase the burden on the speaker’s office. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.