Parliament officially suspends PAC hearings on 1MDB

KUALA LUMPUR — Parliament has officially sent notices to halt all scheduled hearings on the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal by its Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for the entire month of August, vice-chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw confirmed today (Aug 3).

The DAP lawmaker said he received the notice via fax and but was informed in a phone call on Saturday, just a day after the bipartisan PAC’s members from the opposition told a news conference that Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has no authority to order any suspension of proceedings through the media.

“With all due respect, you are informed that the PAC meetings scheduled on the dates below have been postponed,” Dr Tan told Malay Mail Online when contacted over the phone, reading aloud from the brief notice written in Bahasa Malaysia.

No reasons were given for the suspension, he added.

Dr Tan said the notices were sent out despite the fact that only PAC members can decide on whether or not to continue or to freeze its proceedings, adding that the panel’s meeting are required to have a minimum of three members including a chairman.

The dates mentioned in the notice were August 4, 5, 6, 17 and 18, which are the dates scheduled for witnesses linked to the 1MDB issue to provide their testimonies.

The notice was signed by Ms Roosme Hamzan, the clerk to the lower House.

Dr Tan said it would not be possible for PAC to now hold the proceedings as all the doors would be locked tomorrow.

Instead, the five PAC members from the opposition will hold a press conference tomorrow, where they will have to “sit at the lawn or somewhere”.

The latest move to halt the PAC inquiry on 1MDB comes in the wake of a separate investigation on key personnel involved in the government’s own special task force probe on the state-owned investment fund.

On Thursday, Mr Pandikar said “it is only fair” if PAC is convened after the appointment of a new chairman.

Former PAC chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed was elevated to deputy home minister last week during Prime Minister Najib Razak’s sudden Cabinet reshuffle.

According to Parliament’s House Rules, Mr Nur Jazlan would have to resign from being the chairman after being made deputy minister.

The Speaker seemed to suggest that any of the remaining PAC members could not chair the proceedings into the scandal that gripped the nation, although the panel’s opposition members said there has been precedent for its inquiries going ahead uninterrupted. THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE