(Aug 7): Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua will file for a judicial review of the overseas travel ban imposed on him, following the Immigration Department's failure to reply to a letter of demand for the reasons for the restrictions.

His lawyer Gobind Singh Deo said the one-week deadline given to the department to reply to the letter expired on Wednesday.

"We are definitely going to court later to file the application since there is no reply or the rationale for the unreasonable ban.

"It will be filed latest next week as we need time to prepare the court papers," he told The Malaysian Insider.

Gobind said the letter, which was sent on July 28, asked who gave the order and the reason for the travel ban .

Pua, who is DAP publicity secretary, has been vociferous in his criticism of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), and was stopped by immigration authorities from leaving the country on July 22.

He was to fly to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for work purposes when he was stopped by immigration at low-cost carrier terminal klia2 at 3.15pm.

“They stopped me and told me I couldn’t go aboard. They said the instructions came ‘from above’. No reasons were given why I was prevented from leaving,” he said.

One of 1MDB’s staunchest critics, Pua who is also a Public Accounts Committee member, was among those who had highlighted alleged malpractices in the state investment vehicle’s operations and dealings.

He was recently implicated in two video confessions by former journalist Lester Melanyi, who alleged that the two-term MP, together with a clutch of opposition politicians, had fabricated 90% of the documents related to 1MDB with whistle-blower site Sarawak Report as part of a campaign to topple Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The  DAP national publicity secretary has threatened to sue Melanyi for his accusations, giving him seven days to retract and apologise for his widely publicised video statement.

Pua is also being sued by Najib who has accused the DAP lawmaker of incessantly attacking him over the Finance Ministry-owned fund to gain political mileage for the opposition.

Previously, opposition politicians were prevented from entering Sabah and Sarawak. They included Pua’s party colleague, DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, who was blacklisted from both Bornean states.

Others barred from Sarawak included PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli and his party colleagues, Batu MP Chua Tian Chang and former secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

The legal fraternity said that it was unfair for the department to bar citizens from going abroad without giving reasons and that freedom to travel was a fundamental right enshrined in the Federal Constitution, although there were exceptions.

Retired Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram said the authorities could not strip a person's right to travel without reason, as this would be unfair and an abuse of power.

Sri Ram said the department had a duty to inform those who had been blacklisted by serving a notice. – The Malaysian Insider