KUALA LUMPUR (July 29): Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called on Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun to give an assurance that the special meeting of the Dewan Rakyat will continue on Monday as scheduled.

This follows a series of postponements today after it was revealed that the Cabinet’s decision to revoke Malaysia’s emergency ordinances on July 21 did not receive the King's consent. The afternoon session was eventually cancelled following the detection of Covid-19 cases in the Parliament.

“We already saw that ministers did not attend [the afternoon session]. Space should have been provided for us to present our motion.

“The sitting is scheduled to continue on Monday, but we are suspicious… The [Deputy] Speaker said the session can continue but was dependent on the instruction of the Health Director-General [Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah].

“This is a charade and we say this must be stopped. We want an assurance from the Speaker that the session will continue as usual on Monday,” Anwar said.

In a statement issued by Istana Negara today, the King said he was very disappointed that the Cabinet had decided to revoke the emergency ordinances promulgated during the state of emergency without receiving his consent.

The palace also stressed that the statement made in Parliament on July 26 by de-facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan on the cancellation of the ordinances was inaccurate and had confused the MPs as the agreement was to have the ordinances debated in Parliament.

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