KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 – Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar was today disallowed from representing her father, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, during the debate on the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat.
Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee reminded her to speak on her own behalf when she attempted to read out a text of Anwar’s speech.
He said her address would be recorded as that of the Lembah Pantai MP and not that of Anwar, the MP for Permatang Pauh.
“As we have discussed and agreed, the Lembah Pantai MP will only deliver her speech and not that of any other person,” Kiandee said.
Nurul Izzah told reporters at the lobby of Parliament House yesterday that she was prepared to read out a text of the Opposition Leader during the debate on the royal address.
Anwar is serving a five-year jail sentence in the Sungai Buloh Prison after the Federal Court upheld a decision of the Court of Appeal that had found him guilty of having sodomised his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008.
The PKR advisor, whose family is seeking a royal pardon for him, had applied for permission to attend the current sitting of the Dewan Rakyat but the application was rejected by the Prisons Department.
In her hour-long speech during the debate on the royal address, Nurul Izzah touched on, among other things, the issue of floods; the conviction and sentencing of her father; the PT3 Form Three assessment; the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB); the Prevention of Terrorism Bill and the ‘Maqasid’ Syariah (Syariah principles).
– BERNAMA
