adminPUTRAJAYA: The hearing of the appeal of Muar Member of Parliament Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and three voters challenging the government’s decision to stop the allocation for the parliamentary constituency has been postponed to allow the parties involved to reach a resolution in the legal action.
Lawyer Lim Wei Jiet, who represents Syed Saddiq and the three voters, informed the three-judge Federal Court panel today that both parties have agreed in principle to resolve the dispute.
“The agreement in principle basically involves the reinstatement of the RM500,000 allocation for 2023 which was cancelled, in addition to the RM230,000 allocation for certain projects under the myKHAS programme which will also be returned,” he said.
Following this, he requested the court to set a date in the near future to inform him of the latest developments regarding the settlement.
Senior Federal Counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Arwi, representing the Prime Minister and the government, confirmed the agreement, while informing that Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar had been informed of the latest developments in the matter.
“I support my lawyer friend’s application for the court to set a date in the near future to allow us to detail the settlement mechanism,” he said.
Sabah and Sarawak Chief Justice Datuk Seri Azizah Nawawi, who chaired the panel, set Dec 7 for case management pending the resolution of the matter.
The appeal hearing of Syed Saddiq and the three voters took place before a panel that also included Federal Court Judges Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali and Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Syed Saddiq, Najib Abu Nawar, Mohd Bakirudin Abdullah and Muhamad Fadzly Bisri are seeking court permission to commence a judicial review to overturn the government’s decision to stop or cancel the remaining allocation of RM500,000 out of the total RM1.7 million that should have been channeled directly to the Muar Parliament Service Centre bank account for the implementation of welfare, community well-being and disaster relief programmes.
On Dec 24, 2024, the High Court rejected their application for leave to commence a judicial review, while their appeal was also rejected by the Court of Appeal on Oct 27 last year.
However, on March 10 this year, the Federal Court granted them permission to appeal.
Syed Saddiq, along with three Muar Parliamentary voters, filed an application for permission to commence a judicial review on April 23, 2024, naming the Prime Minister and the Malaysian Government as respondents.
In the application, they also asked the court to restore Syed Saddiq’s access to the myKHAS system which manages RM2 million development funds for the parliamentary constituency in question, in addition to overturning the decision to withdraw approval for several projects worth RM230,300 that had been approved through the system.
They also challenged the respondent’s refusal to approve or channel any allocation to Syed Saddiq as the Member of Parliament for Muar for the implementation of programmes under the People-Friendly Project or similar initiatives for 2024.
In addition, they claimed that the respondent’s actions violated Syed Saddiq’s equality rights as the Member of Parliament for Muar as well as the rights of the three other applicants as voters in the parliamentary constituency, as enshrined in Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.
— BERNAMA
