2 more meetings to finalise AG-PP bill, says Ramkarpal

 The Bukit Gelugor MP is optimistic that the bill to separate the roles of the attorney-general and the public prosecutor will be tabled next month.

Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh said the special parliamentary committee needs to fine-tune ‘ a few things’.

GEORGE TOWN:

 Two more meetings will be held by a special parliamentary committee looking into the separation of the roles of the attorney-general and the public prosecutor before it finalises an enabling bill through a constitutional amendment, says an MP.

Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh, who sits on the committee chaired by law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said, said members were still deliberating the proposed amendment.

He said the committee is preparing the drafts and amendments to the bill, and that he was optimistic it would be tabled next month.

“There are a few things which we need to fine-tune, and that’s the purpose of these meetings. We have held four so far, and we have two more to go. I believe that all these issues will be fine-tuned,” he told reporters.

Ramkarpal, a former deputy law minister, was responding to electoral reform group Projek Sama and policy researcher Maha Balakrishnan, who feared that the bill in its present form lacks provisions for parliamentary oversight of the appointment process of a public prosecutor.

Last month, Azalina said the federal government hopes to find a “middle ground” on the bill before June, following demands from NGOs and civil society groups who want Parliament to play a larger role in the appointment process. - FMT