Pakatan postpones suit - Malaysiakini

IPOH: Pakatan Rakyat will not be filing a lawsuit against Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir on Thursday as expected, but would do so at a “later date.”

Former mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin was expected to file the suit to declare the swearing-in of Dr Zambry last Friday as unconstitutional and illegal.

According to Pakatan counsel Leong Cheok Keng, the suit could not be filed Thursday because the alliance’s lawyers were still rushing to complete documents.

“It would be filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court at a later date,” he said.

Pakatan said it would not file the suit in Perak itself “so as not to cause embarrassment to the judges” here by requiring them to choose, he said when met at the High Court here Thursday morning.

Leong said that Dr Zambry would be named as the sole respondent in the suit by Nizar.

The team will however be missing the decades-long experience of DAP national chairman Karpal Singh, who felt that the suit should have also named the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, as a respondent.

It was the Sultan who asked Nizar to step down as mentri besar and swore in Dr Zambry instead, after the resignation of three assemblymen and the defection of a fourth from PKR to Umno saw the Pakatan alliance and Barisan Nasional tied at 28 seats each in the state legislative assembly.

The Sultan declared that Barisan had the majority after the now three independent reps pledged their allegiance to Barisan.

Karpal believes that the Sultan had acted ultra vires. “The Sultan of Perak can be taken to court in his official capacity. That is my view as a lawyer. There is nothing new about it,” he said.

However, Pakatan leaders felt that the Sultan should not be sued. “I do not agree with it. That is what (PKR de facto leader and Opposition leader) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants. Let it be that way,” he said.

“They say I am disrespectful of the Sultan. I am just saying what the law is. I stick by it. Even a first-year law student knows that the Sultan can be taken to court.”

Earlier Thursday, Perak Pakatan lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Authority against Dr Zambry for appointing three advisers and a state information chief with executive councillor (exco) status.

Former Pakatan exco member Nga Kor Ming claimed their appointments were illegal under the state constitution and would cost the state RM960,000 a year.

The three advisers are Gerakan deputy secretary-general Datuk Chang Ko Youn who will handle Chinese affairs, MIC vice-president Datuk S. Veerasingam on Indian affairs, and Batu Kurau state assemblyman Kapt (Rtd) Datuk Mohd Najmuddin Elias Al-Hafiz on religious affairs.