PARLIAMENT | The Pakatan Harapan government did not specify a timeline to separate the functions of the attorney-general, Deputy Law Minister Hanipa Maidin said.

"I admit there was a promise in the election manifesto to separate the powers, but we did not specify a time frame for it.

"In our manifesto, we didn't specify a period (but) the government is dedicated to our efforts to make this happen," he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Hanipa was responding to a question from Azalina Othman Said (BN-Pengerang), who asked when the government planned to table amendments to the Federal Constitution, Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and the Interpretation Act of 1948 and 1967 to separate the functions of the attorney-general.

In its election manifesto, Harapan had promised to separate the attorney-general's role as the government's legal adviser and as the public prosecutor.

This is to prevent a conflict of interest, Harapan said in its manifesto, because the government is like a 'client' of the attorney-general and it would be inappropriate for the AG to hold the ultimate authority to determine whether a client should be prosecuted as well.

While waiting for the attorney-general's functions to be separated, Hanipa said, the Harapan government has not interfered in the attorney-general's duties as public prosecutor.

The ole attorney-general has been free to charge whoever he wants, he added.