Hearing begins on Perak MB crisis

PUTRAJAYA— The Court of Appeal this morning started hearing Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir appeal against the High Court ruling last Monday that declared Pakatan Rakyat’s Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin the rightful Perak mentri besar.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had on May 11 ruled that Nizar was the rightful mentri besar as the state assembly had not moved for a vote of no confidence to remove him.

The following day Zambry filed an appeal and obtained a stay order from Court of Appeal judge Ramly Ali who had sat as a single judge.

Following this Nizar filed his own application to set aside the stay order granted to Zambry.

Nizar's application is to set aside the stay order obtained by Zambry against the High Court ruling which had declared Nizar as the legitimate mentri besar.

He had also requested that the matter be heard by a five-member Court of Appeal panel, instead of the usual three, as it was a matter of public interest and touched on constitutional issues.

However, Nizar failed to get his request. It is learnt that his letter of request did not reach the Court of Appeal president Alauddin Md Sheriff on time.

This morning, the parties agreed that Zambry's appeal will be heard first.

The three-member panel hearing the matter comprises Justices Abdul Raus Sharif, Datuk Zainun Ali and Ahmad Maarop.

This legal battle between Nizar and Zambry is largely seen by many as the final judicial attempt by either party to stamp their authority as the rightful and legitimate Perak menteri besar.

The hearing is expected to take a few days before the court makes a ruling on both the matters before it. Go to this link to get the latest updates from the Appeal Court (TMI)