Pakatan attempts to censure IGP in Parliament over Nurul Izzah arrest

DAP's Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang says the opposition coalition wants Parliament to probe the IGP's actions in having Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar arrested. – The Malaysian Insider pic, March 21, 2015.Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers today lodged a complaint with the Dewan Rakyat Speaker to refer Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to the Rights and Privileges Committee over the "unlawful" arrest of Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar recently.

DAP's Lim Kit Siang said the complaint letter over Khalid's conduct was filed this morning at Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin's office.

"We want an investigation launched against Khalid for invading Nurul Izzah's privilege as a Member of Parliament, who is entitled to full immunity," he said in a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

Nurul Izzah, who is also PKR vice-president, was arrested on March 16 for sedition for a speech she made in Parliament, where she criticised the judiciary over the Federal Court verdict which upheld her father, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's conviction for sodomy.

This is after former Perkasa vice-president Datuk Zulkifli Noordin lodged a police report against Nurul Izzah over her speech.

Lim, who is Gelang Patah MP, said the move to censure the IGP was important as it not only was a concern for Nurul Izzah but also about the institution of the Parliament.

"The supremacy and the sovereignty of Parliament must be protected from violations from anybody and that includes the IGP. The IGP should not be allowed to be so trigger-happy as to violate even the rights and privileges of an MP," he said.

Nurul Izzah, who was also present at the press conference along with other Pakatan leaders, said that the issue is also of importance to lawmakers from the other side of the divide, as it it showed that "no one was safe".

"If we allow violations to the legislative such as this, no member of parliament is safe or guaranteed with immunity with what they say in the House.

"We have to refer him to the committee to preserve parliamentary democracy," she added.

PAS information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena MP) noted that if at all Nurul Izzah had violated any House rule, she should be referred to the parliamentary committee instead of being subjected to the Sedition Act.

R. Sivarasa, who is Subang MP (PKR), said that Nurul Izzah's speech had not touched on the four areas that were deemed to be seditious – the national language, Bumiputera special rights, citizenship and the sovereignty of the Malay rulers.

"Her speech had nothing of those elements. Except for those subjects, parliamentarians have total immunity. So briefly, the IGP's actions towards Nurul Izzah is a contempt of Parliament," he added.

Lim said that anyone can be referred to the parliamentary committee if there was a violation of the privileges accorded to the parliamentarians.

"The scope is not only for parliamentarians but for anyone," he said, adding that it was a criminal offence should the IGP refuse to appear in front of the committee if summoned.

- TMI