Umno Ph School Takiyuddin On Who Advises King On Emergency

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(From left) PKR’s Saifuddin Nasution and Umno’s Noh Omar, both members of the special independent committee, have reminded Takiyuddin Hassan that they are still functioning.PETALING JAYA: The Perikatan Nasional government came under severe fire from all quarters for what they claim as the government going back on its word that the special independent committee will advise the King on the future of the emergency.
Leaders from Umno and Pakatan Harapan were in unison when lambasting de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan for saying the Cabinet will advise the King on whether to end or continue the emergency.
They said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had explicitly said in a live telecast when announcing the emergency that the special independent committee will be advising the King on this matter.
PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail asked if the special committee, of which he is a member, had suddenly become powerless, adding that the government had made a clear exception for it to advise the King, instead of the Cabinet.
“We are still in existence and functioning. Our aim is to present a report to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
“For the law minister to say the Cabinet will be advising the King instead of us makes us wonder whether it has taken over our job,” he said in a statement today.
Saifuddin is one of 19 members in the special committee, chaired by former chief justice Arifin Zakaria.
Yesterday, Takiyuddin said the government will advise the King on whether to extend the emergency beyond Aug 1. “The issue on whether the emergency will lapse on Aug 1 or otherwise is the sole prerogative of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong,” he said.
Fellow committee member and Tanjong Karang MP Noh Omar, meanwhile, said Takiyuddin’s remark is deemed an insult to the 19 members in the independent body.
“If the King is acting on the advice of Cabinet ministers, why was there a need to appoint us in the first place?
“In my opinion, ministers appear to be making decisions at their whims and fancies these days as Parliament is not functioning and they are not accountable,” he said on his Facebook page.
Meanwhile, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said Muhyiddin stands accused of being untrustworthy and not keeping his word if he dishonours his commitment on this matter made when he declared the emergency.
Yesterday, Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Azalina Othman Said questioned the purpose of setting up the special committee if it could not advise the King on the emergency as intended.
“Stop shifting the goalpost,” she told Takiyuddin in a tweet.
In an immediate response, Takiyuddin said no one was shifting the goalpost as she had claimed.
He said the “rules of the game” were “corrected” to enable the referee to make a fair judgment.
“Scoring goals does not mean the goalposts have been shifted,” he said on Twitter. - FMT

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