Opposition Pact Plans To Take Legal Action

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 (Bernama) -- The opposition pact plans to take legal action against Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia after Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and another three opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) were suspended from attending the Dewan Rakyat sitting for six months.
The Member of Parliament for Bukit Gelugor, Karpal Singh (DAP) said the decision to go to court was taken after they were not given an opportunity to give clarification during the debate on the motion for the suspension.
"We may take it to court. There is a precedence in the case of Gobind Singh where we took in fact the Speaker, Pandikar Amin himself. The court has ruled that in certain circumstances, especially when the rules of natural justice is not complied with, then the court has the jurisdiction.
"It's so blatant that it (the action of the Speaker) cannot in any way be defended. We want a judicial ruling on that so we can't let him get away with this. We don't want this to become a precedence in the future," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby, here Thursday.
The Dewan Rakyat today passed the motion to suspend Anwar (PKR-Permatang Pauh) from attending its sitting for six months for making a statement linking the 1Malaysia concept with the One Israel campaign.
Also suspended were Karpal Singh, R.Sivarasa (PKR-Subang) and Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) for several breaches.
Karpal and Sivarasa were said to have breached the Standing Order 85 which states that evidence taken before any Select Committee and documents presented to it shall not be published by any member before the committee has presented its report to the House.
Azmin, through the letter of notification dated Dec 6, 2010 under the Standing Order 18(1) had touched on the statement and letter submitted during the Meeting of the Rights and Special Privileges Committee on Dec 3, 2010.
Meanwhile, Anwar said he would use the PKR-DAP-PAS pact convention to be held in Penang on Dec 19 to explain to the public on his suspension as well as that of the other three MPs.

tunku:it seems like karpal's brain is not functioning well nowadays. his legal action against the speaker will be rejected by the court as the parliament held the power to expel members for improper conduct.sometimes they think they are smart but actually a bunch of morons.they have shown a very low standard of an mp's attitude in the parliament yesterday.so unprofessional of them especially their leader.do read about the lies by the opposition about apco by yb zul.