PUTRAJAYA, 23 April 2009: Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin today objected to Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir’s application for the Federal Court to declare him the legitimate Menteri Besar.
Nizar made the objection through an affidavit in reply filed at the court’s registry here through legal firm Messrs Leong & Tan.
In the affidavit, Nizar said among others that the questions suggested by Zambry for the court to decide could not solve the political impasse.
He said the issues, whether the post of Menteri Besar could and/or had been vacated in the situation where the Menteri Besar wished, and had advised for the dissolution of the state legislative assembly under several circumstances including the absence of a motion of no confidence being passed and adopted in and by the assembly against the Menteri Besar could still not be answered.
He said, the questions suggested by Zambry for the court to decide were irrelevant to his judicial review application and it would not resolve the contentious issues in the application.
Nizar is also challenging the validity of Article 63 of the Perak state constitution which was used to refer the matter to the Federal Court.
He said the Federal Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the Article 63 application because the term “Supreme Court” in Article 63 did not refer to the apex court in the Federation of Malay States because the apex court at that time was the Privy Council.
Nizar said he did not dispute the prerogative of the Sultan of Perak which was enshrined in Article 16(2) and/or Article 36(2). He said, the Sultan of Perak’s prerogative did not arise at all in his judicial review application.
Zambry filed the application to refer three legal questions regarding the interpretation of Article 16(2) and 16(6) according to Article 63 of the Perak state constitution.
In his notice of motion, Zambry said that if the Federal Court decided in his favour regarding the three questions, the court should declare that on 6 Feb 2009, he had been properly appointed as Perak Menteri Besar.
The Federal Court has fixed 28 April to hear the notice of motion application.
Nizar filed the judicial review application at the High Court to challenge Zambry’s appointment as the legitimate Menteri Besar.
Nizar argued that according to the Perak state constitution, he was the legitimate Menteri Besar because he had advised the Sultan to disolve the state legislative assembly, did not resign and no motion of no confidence had been passed against him in the Assembly.
The High Court will hear the judicial review application on 5 and 6 May. — Bernama
