It's minister's question time Tuesdays and Thursdays

PARLIAMENT The Dewan Rakyat will fix Tuesdays and Thursdays as the minister's question time to allow the prime minister and his cabinet members to answer queries from lawmakers on current issues.

Announcing this at a press conference, Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia said the House will allocate half an hour for each minister, whereby six ministers will do the answering.

Lawmakers need to give the relevant ministers a 24-hour notice, he added.

"The lawmakers need to ask their questions within one minute, while the ministers need to answer them within three minutes.

"This is to prevent the negative perception of the community that Parliament does not give space (for lawmakers to ask questions)," Pandikar said.

When asked why the "prime minister's question time" ended up as "minister's question time", he said that it was the same.

"This is the same. Just the question of name because during the minister's question time, the prime minister will be around to answer, the ministers will be around to answer too," he said.

The minister's question time, together with two other proposals, which the cabinet approved in late January, will be tabled to the House for debate in this session, which sits until April 7.

[More to follow]

-Mkini