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Explain double standard on RM2.6b queries, Pandikar told
Published:  Mar 9, 2016 12:46 PM
Updated: 6:27 AM

Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has been asked to explain why questions on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's RM2.6 billion donations are no longer allowed in the House.

Suspended Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang said this was a double standard, as such questions were allowed in the last Parliament session.

"The speaker must satisfy MPs and the Malaysian public for such double standard as it is completely unacceptable if the speaker is now in the forefront blocking parliamentary query to get to the bottom of Najib’s twin mega scandals," Lim said in a statement today.

Yesterday, the House refused to entertain nine questions posed by six PKR and DAP lawmakers regarding the RM2.6 billion donation and 1MDB.

The questions by PKR's Nibong Tebal MP Mansor Othman and Bukit Katil MP Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin on the donation were rejected on the grounds that their questions should be confined to matters related to the minister's post.

Questions by Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng were also turned down for being "based on assumptions".

In the previous Parliament session, all queries on the RM2.6 billion donation were deflected to be answered on the last day of Parliament.

MPs had expected the answer to come from Najib. However, on the last day of the proceedings on Dec 3, it was Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who answered their questions.

Zahid said attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali had advised them not to answer the questions as it could be subjudice, while reiterating that the RM2.6 billion was a donation.

Apandi has since cleared Najib of any wrongdoing in regard to the donation.

Najib has denied claims that he used public funds for personal gains, and dismissed such accusations as an attempt to topple him.

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