KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 18): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) resumed its hearing into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) today with the firm’s president Arul Kanda Kandasamy but barred the media from entering the Parliament area where the session is taking place.

PAC deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw told news portal Malaysiakini that panel chief Datuk Hasan Ariffin indeed decided to bar the media.

Journalists were instead told to wait outside the Parliament gates.

Malaysiakini said a policeman on duty at the gate told reporters that this was on instructions “from the highest authority”.

Arul Kanda is testifying before the PAC for the second time, following five hours of questioning on December 1.

Hasan, who became PAC chief this year, has decided to no longer brief the press after the panel’s meeting, a departure from usual practice.

PAC was to have received the auditor-general’s final report on 1MDB but this has been delayed, with Hasan saying it has to be “updated”.