Selangor legislative assembly speaker Teng Chang Khim brushed off claims of a hidden agenda in the delivery of the draft of the amendment to the state’s constitution.

Responding to claims by opposition BN assemblypersons that they have yet to be given a copy of the proposed changes to the state constitution, Teng said: “Actually the assembly officials only received the Bill on Wednesday, so there were some time constraints, but I was informed by the assembly secretary this morning that all assembly representatives have been told to come and get the copy of the Bill and the order of the day.

The sitting was called following the recent dispute over the appointment of state secretary Mohd Khusrin Munawi.

The attempt by the Pakatan Rakyat government to amend the constitution to return powers to appoint state senior civil servants to the Sultan of Selangor and the Menteri Besar was decided after an impasse with the federal government over the appointment of Mohd Khusrin.

NONE “I hope all parties will give their cooperation so all the documents can be delivered to them (on time) because we are working within a short span of time.”

However, Teng ( left ) reminded that the according to the assembly’s Standing Order 10(3) the order paper or Bills can be given right before the meeting convenes.

“The document can also be given to them on the same day. I hope this will not be an issue and the announcement has also been made by (Menteri Besar) Khalid Ibrahim and all newspapers have reported (about the sitting).

“So the information has been delivered and there is no hidden agenda. I hope everyone understands that there are time constraints on the part of the assembly officials to send the notice to all assembly representatives,” he reiterated.

Pakatan short of two-thirds majority

However, Pakatan Rakyat, which only holds 35 out of the 56 seats in the assembly, is short of three seats for the two-thirds majority necessary to amend the constitution.

On Monday, the sitting will proceed with only 55 representatives as the Port Klang seat was declared vacant on Wednesday following the absence without a proper explanation of its assemblyperson, Badrul Hisham Abdullah.

Nevertheless, in order to prove that the authority of the Selangor Sultan and the Menteri Besar had been robbed by the federal government, the Pakatan government intends to go through with it.

Selangor has been at loggerheads with the federal government since chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan named Mohd Khusrin as the state secretary on Dec 27.

The Pakatan-led state government has insisted that it can choose its own state secretary and had rejected the appointment of the former Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) director.