The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is facing prospects of having delays in its probe into 1MDB but one of its BN members is sure it will not change the facts gathered by the ongoing inquiry.

Kulim-Bandar Baru MP Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir said no matter when the PAC conduct its investigation, the evidence will still be in place.

“I am not rushing for the result because you can’t run away from the result,” he told reporters when met outside former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s house today, as he was leaving.

“As far as the PAC is concerned, we can wait because you cannot run. The number will be there; the issues will be there, whether it is August, September, October.

“(There is) nowhere to run. You cannot hide this,” he added.

At the time he spoke to reporters, news have yet to break that Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has decreed that PAC’s proceedings, including its 1MDB probe, would be put on hold until the next parliamentary session where a new PAC chief is appointed.

The PAC had begun its investigation by calling for witnesses in April, and is originally due to hear testimonies from current and former 1MDB chief executives next week.

Waiting for Speaker's move

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz said he is only waiting for Pandikar’s directives on whether the PAC could continue, and the four remaining BN parliamentarians on the PAC, including himself, will abide by the ruling.

“The three other members (who have been appointed as minister and deputy ministers) is not an issue but the issue is that of the chairmanship.

“Once the chairman is no (longer) there, what I have been told is that the appointment of chairman and deputy chairman must be made in parliament when it is sitting, so the next sitting will be in October.

“We will just wait for the ruling by the speaker,” he said.

His statement came amid insistence by PAC vice chairperson Tan Seng Giaw ( photo ) that the PAC proceedings will go on, arguing that there is still sufficient quorum to do so and that the Standing Orders allow the committee to appoint a new chairperson by itself.

“Such hearings should not be delayed. We should consider the desire of Malaysians to know the truth about 1MDB,” the DAP parliamentarian said in a statement earlier today.

However, in his decree, Pandikar said the Standing Order allowing PAC members to appoint a new chairperson does not apply in this case.

“Furthermore, to evade any dispute or issues raised on the validity of the proceeding while the chair is vacant, it is only apt that the PAC reconvenes after the position of chairman is filled,” he was quoted by the BN Backbenchers’ Club website as saying.