Petaling Jaya MP Tony Pua's application to strike out Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's defamation suit has been fixed for hearing on July 24 in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Najib's application to strike out certain portions of Pua's affidavit  and web portal Media Rakyat 's defence will also be heard on the same day.

The applications will be heard by Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera. The date‎ was fixed today before High Court registrar K Pavani.

Lawyer Aliff Benjamin Suhaimi appeared for Pua, while Shahid Adli Kamaruddin for Chan and Nur Emelia Iszham representing Najib.

Najib is suing the DAP federal lawmaker and  MediaRakyat portal owner Chan Chee Kong over a ceramah Pua had delivered.

The prime minister said Pua had delivered a speech at a DAP fund-raising dinner on Nov 3 last year relating to 1MDB, at which Pua had slandered him.

He said the speech was then uploaded by Chan, or by his agents onto MediaRakyat's YouTube channel and MediaRakyat's webpage.

Najib seeking apology and compensation

Najib is seeking an apology, retraction of the statement and compensation.

The suit is the first filed against a federal lawmaker by a sitting prime minister.

Najib claims that Pua's speech and the video recording implied that he had stolen or is going to continue to steal the people's money with regard to the 1MDB project.

It also meant that the prime minister, as chairperson of 1MDB's advisory board, had abused his powers for personal gain, and hence had betrayed the public.

Najib claimed that the speech made by Pua also meant that he is not trustworthy and unfit to hold public office.

Pua's speech was put up on news portal Media Rakyat with the title "Tony Pua: Najib is creating the biggest scandal ever in the history of Malaysia." The video had more than 200,000 views.

Najib is seeking exemplary, aggravated and general damages. He is also seeking an injunction to stop the defendants from repeating and publishing such slanderous and libellous statements.

Besides Pua, Najib has also filed suits against PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli and recently, against DAP’s Taiping MP, Nga Kor Ming .

The prime minister has also filed suits against Malaysiakini over two articles carrying the comments of readers on the Terengganu imbroglio and against PAS mouthpiece Harakah as well on a 1MDB report.