Anwar disagrees with call for special Parliament sitting on Zahid DNAA

The High Court's decision to grant Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) for his 47 graft charges involving Yayasan Akalbudi funds cannot be debated in a special Parliament sitting, according to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

He said the Parliament sitting cannot be transformed into a courtroom to discuss the decision regarding Zahid, who is also the deputy prime minister.

"We cannot discuss court cases in Parliament... Parliament is not a courtroom where you can ask questions and we try to answer because the attorney-general is not a member of Parliament and not a minister," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He was responding to the call by PKR Youth through its vice-chief Atyrah Hanim Razali on Sept 7 for an urgent Parliament sitting to be held on Zahid’s DNAA.

Atyrah Hanim reportedly said that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) should be given a timeframe to find new evidence to re-prosecute Zahid, and the retrial should be conducted immediately if the government leadership did not want to lose its credibility.
 
Anwar said the government had no objection to any MP asking about the case during normal Dewan Rakyat sessions, but that the Parliament sitting should not be turned into a courtroom.

He also described as unfair the threat by Muda to withdraw its support for the government following the decision as the decision to withdraw the charges against Zahid did not lie with him but rested solely with the AGC.

On Tuesday, Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman reportedly said that Muda would withdraw its support for the government if there was no detailed explanation from the AGC on its decision to withdraw the 47 corruption charges against Zahid.