KUALA LUMPUR – PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is suing the prime minister and government for advising the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to suspend Parliament through the emergency ordinance.
Anwar’s lawyer, Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh, said an application for leave for a judicial review was filed yesterday at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
The Port Dickson MP filed the suit in his capacity as opposition leader in the Dewan Rakyat.
He is seeking a court declaration that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin gave unlawful advice to the king to suspend Parliament while the country is under emergency rule.
“Among the reliefs sought in that application is a declaration from the court that the prime minister’s advice to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to suspend Parliament during the period of the emergency proclaimed recently is against the law and not in line with the federal constitution,” said Ramkarpal, who is also DAP’s legal bureau chairman, in a brief statement today.
“It has to be stressed here that what is being challenged in that application is not the proclamation of emergency, but the decision of the prime minister (through the cabinet) to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to approve Rule 14 of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021 that suspends Parliament during the emergency period. The prime minister’s advice is said to be in contravention of the law.”
As the “advice is against the law”, Ramkarpal said he hopes an early hearing date will be fixed.
Anwar had said he would file such an application to ensure the right to a parliamentary sitting, claiming that a majority of MPs wanted the same. – The Vibes, January 26, 2021
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