The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) will seek further instructions from the Home Ministry regarding the possibility of lifting the gazetted ban on the book "Sapuman - Man of Steal" by political cartoonist Zunar.

This was related by Zunar's lawyer N Surendran at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today.

Initially, the merits of the cartoonist’s challenge towards the ban were supposed to be heard today.

This follows the court’s decision to grant leave to challenge the ban earlier this year.

Senior federal counsel Muzilah Mohd Arshad informed Justice Azizah Nawawi about the AGC’s decision, when she met the judge in her chambers, along with Zunar’s lawyers Surendran and Latheefa Koya.

Following this, Justice Azizah allowed today’s hearing to be postponed to Aug 9, pending updates on further developments.

Meanwhile, Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwarul Haque, called on the new Pakatan Harapan government to quickly fulfil its promise to repeal the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA).

"Maybe this new government may be alright, but as long as this legislation is there, it may result in abuses later - maybe not by this present government but subsequent governments.

"Hence, this PPPA must be among the first legislation to go," he said.

Zunar added that the other legislation which should be repealed are the Sedition Act 1948, the Anti Fake News Act 2018, and the Official Secrets Act 1972.

This, Zunar said is to ensure there is no abuse of such provisions by the politicians.

In this court case, the ban on the book was made last October.

The cartoonist had named the home minister and the government as respondents, following the ban.

Aside from setting aside the prohibition on the ban, Zunar is also seeking for the ban to be declared void and illegal, on grounds that it is ultra vires of Section 7 of the PPPA and that it violates Articles 5 (personal liberty), 8 (equality) and 10 (1)(a) (freedom of expression) of the Federal Constitution.