Pakatan Rakyat MPs have moved to refer Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri to the Rights and Privileges Committee for submitting a false statement to the Parliament.

Abdul Rahim last week claimed that the Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) had "assumed" that the MH370 turn back was ordered by the control tower and thus did not intercept the plane.

However, the following day, Abdul Rahim retracted this via a media statement, claiming that his statement was based on his own assumption.

Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut) said Abdul Rahim's statement about the turn back is still in the Parliament Hansard and thus action needs to be taken against the deputy minister.

Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) also made a similar call, but deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee insisted that the House needs to seek clarification from the deputy minister first before making a decision.

In a press conference later, Chua said that the trend of ministers or deputy ministers giving misleading statements in the House must stop.

"They can't continue like this, they will retract statements for a while and not retract in other instances. They need to take Parliament more seriously," he stressed.