PUTRAJAYA, 24 April 2009: Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin wants a nine-member quorum to hear Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir’s application for the Federal Court to decide on who is the rightful menteri besar of Perak.
Mohammad Nizar’s counsel, Leong Cheok Keng, when contacted today, said he submitted a letter to Chief Justice Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi’s secretary on 22 April seeking a larger bench to hear the matter.
Among the grounds given for the application were that the matter was of public interest and that they wanted to revisit the issue of applicability or validity of Article 63 of the Perak state constitution.
Leong said a five-member bench had previously deliberated on Article 63.
Zambry’s application has been fixed for hearing on Tuesday.
He is bringing the matter straight to the Federal Court via Article 63 of the Perak State Constitution requesting the highest court in the country to determine and interpret Article 16(2) and 16(6) of the Perak State Constitution.
Zambry wants the court to determine three constitutional questions involving the interpretation of the sultan’s prerogative under the Perak constitution to appoint a menteri besar.
In his application, he said that if the questions were decided by the Federal Court in his favour, he wanted the court to declare that his appointment as menteri besar on 6 Feb was in accordance with the Perak state constitution.
Mohammad Nizar, however, filed an affidavit-in-reply yesterday opposing the referral, saying that the questions suggested by Zambry for the court to decide could not solve the political impasse. — Bernama
