The Malaysian Bar - Nazri: Only A-G can prosecute

Home

News

Legal/General News

Nazri: Only A-G can prosecute

Friday, 22 June 2012 09:28am

©The Star (Used by permission)
At The Dewan Rakyat Reports by MAZWIN NIK ANIS, YUEN MEI KENG and WONG PEK MEI

IT is not possible to give the power to charge and prosecute enforcement officers to any Commission, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told the House.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said the power to prosecute was in the hands of the Attorney-General and this was provided for in the Constitution.

“If ever the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) is set up as a body to specifically investigate police, it would only function to investigate, not prosecute,” he told Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) during question time.

Azmin had asked if the Government was planning to amend relevant laws to empower the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission to prosecute.

He said the commission had a wider mandate compared to IPCMC as it had the jurisdiction to monitor 19 enforcement agencies, including the police.

“The commission has received 120 complaints involving the police.

“Of that, nine cases were referred to MACC while 15 were referred to the police disciplinary committee,” he said.

To another question, Nazri told members there was no need for a special legislative parliamentary select committee to be set up as it might hamper debate on Bills.

“If we have a committee to review the Bills, then there would be no need for debates in Dewan Rakyat because it would already have been done at the committee level. Then, there would be no point for us to discuss it here as it would already have been decided,” he said.

“The system now is better as the Bills goes through the Dewan Rakyat, which gives a chance for all here to debate and it is not limited to members of any PSC,” he told Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan).

He told Sim Tong Hin (DAP-Kota Melaka) that the drafting division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers was responsible for drafting Bills before they were presented in Parliament.

”So, any changes or setting up of a committee to take over this duty and responsibility involves a policy decision,” he said.

“Anyway, before any decision is made on the rationale of having a legislative PSC, a thorough study has to be made to determine whether there is a need for it,” he added.

Set as favourite

Email This