Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said that he was willing to persuade Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail to engage veteran lawyer Karpal Singh to prosecute VK Lingam on behalf of the government.

He said this in exasperation when reporters questioned him as to why the government was not prosecuting lawyer Lingam for allegedly fixing up appointment of judges.

gobind suspended from parliament 160309 nazri Nazri once again repeated that the government had no reason to charge Lingam although his alleged brokering of judges may be morally wrong.

There are no specific laws against such things therefore the federal prosecutor may not able nail him on anything, added Nazri.

"Give me a section under any Act to charge Lingam... give me an offence," Nazri asked reporters. At this stage one of them mentioned Karpal's suggestion to charge the prominent lawyer under the Sedition Act.

Karpal, who is also the Bukit Gelugor DAP MP, had demanded in Parliament for Lingam to be prosecuted for sedition as the latter had brought the judiciary to disrepute.

The veteran parliamentarian and lawyer had said that despite clear evidence showing Lingam engaging in a phone conversation with former top judge Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and brokering the appointment of judges, he was let off the hook.

Karpal accepts offer

Responding to this Nazri said that he was willing to persuade the AG to appoint Karpal to do the prosecution.

"If Karpal is willing to represent the AG, I will persuade the AG to engage Karpal to prosecute on the behalf of the government," said Nazri.

tan boon wah sue macc 220709 karpal "Let him (Karpal) charge... the government has no reason to defend Lingam," said Nazri, adding that a similar thing was done in Teoh Beng Hock's inquest where a private legal practitioner was appointed to lead the AG's team.

When met outside the House, Karpal said he was slightly surprised by Nazri's offer but nonetheless he was willing to take up the challenge.

"I am prepared to charge Lingam on the AG's behalf... what has to be done now is for Nazri to shoot me a fiat (an authoritative order)," said Karpal.