Kuala Lumpur High Court has asked Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar's defamation suit against inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar and minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to first go for mediation.

"Usually the practice of the High Court for all cases is to first go for mediation to see if the matter can be resolved, before going to full trial," said Nurul Izzah's lawyer S Sivarasa

Seeing it has not been done yet, judge Faizah Jamaludin therefore asked for the case to be referred for mediation, the lawyer told reporters outside the courtroom today.

If mediation fails, he said, the case will proceed to trial in August.

Nurul is suing the duo over statements made after the appearance of a photograph of her with self-styled Sulu princess Jacel Kiram, which she claims were slanderous as their words allegedly implied she had links to the Sulu intrusion of Sabah in 2013.

Sivarasa added the case also could not proceed today because his team had challenged the validity of Ismail being represented by a federal counsel from the Attorney-General's Chambers and vice versa.

This, he said, is since the case involves his statements at an Umno event, and hence he should be represented by a private lawyer instead of a government one.

"He (Ismail) had made the statements considered slanderous, at an event organised by Umno and not an official (government) event, and had nothing to do with his official capacity as a minister.

"Our argument is the issue touched upon in his speech […] had nothing to do with his ministerial duties.

"In that context, it is a valid question why a federal counsel is representing him in this case," said Sivarasa.

Last November, the Court of Appeal dismissed an application by the defendants to strike out a defamation lawsuit.

Nurul Izzah, who is PKR vice president, is seeking damages, costs and interest as well as an injunction to stop the duo from repeating the statements made.