KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has filed for permission for a judicial review to challenge the decision of the Commissioner-General of Prisons who rejected his application to attend the meeting of the first term of the third term of the 13th Parliament which will end on April 9.
Anwar, 67, filed the application today at the High Court Registrar’s Office, here through Messrs Daim & Gamany.
He named the Home Minister and the Commissioner General of Prisons as the first and second respondents.
Through the supporting affidavit, Anwar, who is now in the Sungai Buloh Prison, claimed that he was still a member of the Dewan Rakyat and the Opposition Leader as the petition for a royal pardon to the Yang Di-pertuan Agong had yet to be decided.
He had submitted the application for the royal pardon on Feb 24 after the Federal Court maintained his five-year jail sentence for sodomising his personal assistant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
“The Dewan Rakyat Speaker had on Feb 24 confirmed my status as a Member of the Dewan Rakyat. Subsequently, on Feb 25, my solicitors had made an application on my behalf to the first respondent and applied that I be allowed to attend the Dewan Rakyat which began sitting on March 9 until April 9.
“The second respondent replied my letter and had rejected my application on March 4 without giving any reason and the first respondent had issued several media statements that he had no power to allow me to be present in Parliament. Whereas the second respondent is responsible to the first respondent under
Section 13 of the Prison Act 1995,” he said through the affidavit.
Anwar claimed that the decisions of the two respondents in not allowing him to attend the Dewan Rakyat sitting were unconstitutional, invalid and void.
He also claimed that he still had the responsibility as the elected
representative in Permatang Pauh and applied to the court to revoke the decision of the respondent.
Meanwhile lawyer N. Surendran, representing Anwar, told reporters that he had filed for the ‘certificate of urgency’ so that the court would hear the case as soon as possible because the Dewan Rakyat was now in session.
According to lawyer Latheefa Koya, who is also representing Anwar, her client also filed the application for approval for the judicial review on an ex-parte basis against the same two respondents today.
Anwar sought for an order that the decision of the Commissioner-General of Prison dated March 4 be transferred to the High Court and revoked under a certiorari order.
He also sought for an order which was mandamus which required the
Commissioner-General of Prison to allow Anwar to attend the Dewan Rakyat sitting from March 9 to April 9 and a declaration that Anwar had the right to attend the sitting.
Anwar’s daughters, Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha were present at the court when filing both the applications.-Bernama