Pandikar not aware gov't rejected questions on RM2.6b

PARLIAMENT Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia is not aware that the government had rejected questions on the RM2.6 billion scandal by citing standing orders that it will be sub-judice to raise the matter.

"When was this reply given?" Pandikar asked when Goo Hsiao Leung (PKR-Alor Setar) pointed out the government's written reply to a question raised by Sim Tze Tzin (PKR-Bayan Baru) yesterday,

The speaker then demanded to see the reply when Gobind Singh Deo (DAP-Puchong) asked if such questions could hence be asked in the House.

Minsiter in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said, who issued the ban on such questions, had replied to Sim that the question cannot be answered, in line with Standing Order 23(1)(g), since the RM2.6 billion issue is being reviewed by the court.

This is in reference to a judicial review the Malaysian Bar filed against the decision of attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali (photo) to clear Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of ant wrong-doing in the scandal.

Pandikar said he was not aware that Azalina had issued the ban as he rarely reads the news nowadays, and said he would not make a ruling as of yet.

As such, he said, the issue is merely polemics for now, but stressed that only the speaker or his deputies can decide on the Standing Orders.

"If the reason given is that it does not follow the Standing Orders, and whether it is because it is sub-judice or if its secret, that will be decided by whoever is sitting (in the speaker's chair), either me or my deputies," Pandikar added. -Mkini