Sharifah Hasidah (second right) seen accompanying Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg who visited her Hari Raya open house at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka here yesterday.
KUCHING: Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman GhazalI is confident that Sarawak can win in the hearing of an application by Petronas for clarification of its status in the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974 at the Federal Court.
According to her, the state’s legal team is fully prepared for the hearing, using the documents obtained from a mission to seek more information on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) in London recently as its main weapon.
“The documents from London will help a lot, all of which are original and all the documents we brought back will be fully utilised as evidence needed in court. With that, we are confident of winning in the struggle to defend Sarawak’s oil and gas executive rights and this is the state government’s stand,” she said during her Hari Raya open house at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka here yesterday.
However, Hasidah also said that any action taken by the state government would depend on the decision of the hearing process, which was originally scheduled for June 12 at the Federal Court but was postponed to June 21.
“We wait and see what the court decision will be on June 21 whether they justify Petronas’s application or vice versa and from there we see what further action will be taken. For now, we do not want to rush or rush to take any action,” she said.
On June 4, Petronas filed an application before the Federal Court seeking for a declaration on the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974 being the law applicable for the petroleum industry in Malaysia.
The oil and gas company in a statement sought to clarify that under the law, it is the exclusive owner of the petroleum resources as well as the regulator for the upstream industry throughout Malaysia, including in Sarawak.
The matter was confirmed by the Sarawak Attorney General’s Chambers who admitted receiving a notice from the Registrar of the Federal Court that the state government was a party to the petition filed by Petronas.