Court rejects Perak Speaker’s pre-emptive strike


Sivakumar (centre) is filing a suit to stop Perak state secretary Abdul Rahman Hashim from blocking tomorrow’s planned legislative seating. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ipoh High Court today rejected an application by Perak Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Speaker, V. Sivakumar, for an injunction against the state secretary to effectively prevent him from interfering in a legislative assembly sitting at the state secretariat scheduled for tomorrow morning.

PR’s application was rejected by Judicial Commissioner Tarmizi Abd Rahman on the ground that it was not served on time.

The inter-parte injunction application against Datuk Abdul Rahman Hashim was heard this afternoon.

Sivakumar’s lawyer, Mohd Asri Osman, told reporters earlier the court order was to stop Abdul Rahman from using his powers to stop PR assemblymen from attending tomorrow’s sitting, scheduled to start at 10am.

The first-term state lawmaker for Tronoh accused the state secretary of bias towards the Barisan Nasional (BN) faction and acting improperly in discharging his duty at a sitting on March 3, which eventually ended in Sivakumar’s forced removal from the speaker’s chair.

The ousted speaker was later replaced by the former BN Sungkai assemblyman, Datuk R. Ganesan, whose appointment on March 7 Sivakumar continues to dispute.

In a lawyer’s letter sent to the state secretary today, Sivakumar reminded Abdul Rahman that he was only a civil servant and must follow the orders given by the state government headed by the mentri besar.

Sivakumar demanded a written promise within the next 48 hours from Abdul Rahman that he will not “interfere” with tomorrow’s proceedings.

Drawing attention to Section 124 of the Penal Code, Sivakumar also warned Abdul Rahman that legal action will be taken against him if he acts directly or indirectly to stop PR assemblymen from “carrying out their duties.”

“You will recall that on 3.3.2009, the OCPD of Ipoh confirmed that it was you who had instructed them to stop the Assembly from sitting,” he added in the letter.

Copies of the letter were also sent to the chief secretary in the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya, Perak’s state assembly secretary Mohd Misbahul Munir Masduki, the state legal adviser, ousted PR mentri besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin and BN mentri besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir.

MI
01/09/09

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