Jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's application to challenge the decision of the Federal Court the country's highest court to uphold his conviction and sentence for corruption will be heard next month.

The Federal Court registry informed Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair yesterday that the court would be hearing the judicial review o­n March 18 but made no mention o­n the number of judges who will sit to deliberate o­n the matter.

It would be Anwar's final attempt to set aside the decision made by High Court judge S Augustine Paul who o­n April 14, 1999 jailed him six years for abusing his powers by tampering with police investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Federal Court judges in the March 18 panel will be reviewing the decision made by their own colleagues, which is considered to be a rare move.

On July 10 last year Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Steve Shim and Federal Court judge Haidar Mohd Noor upheld Paul's decision.

Haidar wrote a 60-page judgment o­n issues of Anwar's conviction while Dzaiddin wrote a five-page judgment o­n the six-year sentence. There was however no indication in the judgment that Shim agreed with his two colleagues as he had not given his written judgment o­n the matter.

While there is no avenue of appeal for a decision made by the Federal Court, aggrieved parties can however apply to the same court for a review of its decision.

In his application which was filed in August last year, Anwar urged the court to invoke its power under the Federal Court Rules 1995 to set aside its recent decision which deprived his life and liberty as sanctioned in the Federal Constitution.

Paul's conduct questioned

Anwar claimed the court failed to consider its decision o­n lawyer Zainur Zakaria's appeal in which the judges had questioned Paul's conduct which implied that the High Court judge was leaning in favour of the prosecution.

Zainur, a senior lawyer, was cited for contempt by Paul after refusing to apologise for seeking to disqualify senior prosecutors Abdul Gani Patail now the attorney-general and Azahar Mohamed for allegedly attempting to fabricate evidence against Anwar during the corruption trial.

He was sentenced to three months' jail but his appeal was allowed by a three-member Federal Court panel Haidar, Shim and Justice Abdul Malek Ahmad.

Anwar claimed that the Federal Court was wrong to find that Paul's conduct during Zainur's contempt proceeding was irrelevant to his four corrupt practice charges as the judges in Zainur's appeal had not o­nly chastised Paul's unbecoming behaviour but even averted to the prosecution for engaging in a conspiracy to fabricate evidence against him.

Decision flawed

Anwar also claimed that the Federal Court decision was flawed as it failed to consider the questions that the judges Dzaiddin ( photo ) and Shim had raised during the hearing of the appeal such as the issue of political conspiracy and Paul's conduct in barring him (Anwar) from presenting his defence of political conspiracy.

Anwar also alleged that the decision was flawed as it did not reflect the concurrence of all the judges with regards to the two judgments delivered by Dzaiddin and Haidar. This is because their judgments did not indicate Shim's stand.

The former deputy prime minister added that the judgment had resulted in strong dissatisfaction and disappointment from various independent watch groups, both in Malaysia and overseas.

Anwar is also still awaiting an appeal date from the Court of Appeal over his sodomy conviction. He was sentenced to nine years jail by another High Court in August 2000.