We were denied chance to discuss Zahid’s DNAA, Perikatan MPs claim

KUALA LUMPUR: Perikatan Nasional MPs say they were denied the opportunity to raise the issue of Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s discharge not amounting an acquittal (DNAA) in Parliament despite an earlier assurance by Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul.

Arau MP Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said this left a question mark on the status of the issue.

“After Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim tabled the mid-term review of the 12th Malaysia Plan, the Speaker adjourned the lower House.

“Machang (Wan Ahmad Fayshal Wan Ahmad Kamal) then stood up to question what the Speaker said earlier about raising the matter after the Prime Minister’s speech.

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“(But) we don’t know the status of (this matter),” he told a press conference at the Parliament building on Monday (Sept 11).

Shahidan also claimed that Johari had gone back on his promise.

“We (expected) that in this august House, with all Malaysians watching, that we would be given a chance to raise the motion filed.

“Yet it was suddenly taken away.

“The people are watching and waiting for an explanation on Ahmad Zahid being granted a DNAA,” he said.

Wan Ahmad Fayshal, who filed an emergency motion on Friday (Sept 8) for a special sitting to discuss the DNAA, said it seemed as if the Speaker had received “instructions from above”.

“What is there to be afraid of or hide when debating this issue?

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“We want to know whether or not there is time for us to debate this tomorrow (Sept 12). The reasons given by the Attorney General’s chambers on the DNAA are not convincing.

“How can a case at the prima facie stage be dropped?” he asked.

Separately, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal also quashed comparisons between Ahmad Zahid being granted a DNAA and Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin being freed of all four power abuse charges by the High Court.

“Ahmad Zahid’s case was (dropped) by the Attorney General’s Chambers and the court had to comply.

“You cannot compare both cases,” he said, adding that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said should explain the matter.

Parliament is scheduled to sit for six days from Monday to table the mid-term review of the 12th Malaysia Plan.

On Sept 4, the Kuala Lumpur High Court granted Ahmad Zahid a DNAA on all 47 counts in the corruption trial involving funds from his charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi.