Dr M appeals against High Court decision on RCI panel members

PETALING JAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) has filed an appeal against the High Court's decision which dismissed his application to remove two members of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on foreign exchange losses in the 1980s and 1990s.

The move comes just after Dr Mahathir's application for leave for a judicial review over the RCI's decision that it could not disqualify its members had been dismissed by the High Court on Thursday.

According to the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman’s lawyer, Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, an urgent motion to hear the application to stay the RCI proceedings had been filed at the Court of Appeal at 5.30pm Thursday.

He told reporters that the hearing for the application was set for Friday morning at the Court of Appeal.

"The appeal tomorrow is to obtain an order from the court to stay proceedings of the RCI pending hearing of an appeal proper," he said.

On Aug 9, the former prime minister filed a judicial review to quash the RCI's dismissal of his application to disqualify Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan and Tan Sri Saw Choo Boon from being panel members in the RCI proceedings.

Dr Mahathir had named RCI panel members Mohd Sidek, Saw, Datuk Wira Kamaludin Md Said, Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan, Pushpanathan S. A. Kanagarayar, RCI secretary Datuk Dr Yusof Ismail and the Government as the respondents.

The former premier is also seeking an order to compel the Government to immediately advise the Agong under Article 40(1) and Article 40(1A) of the Federal Constitution to quash the appointment of the two RCI members.

He said that the RCI had breached the natural justice on grounds that the first and fourth respondents were also members of a task force responsible for the investigation that forwarded a recommendation to advise Cabinet to form an RCI to investigate forex losses by Bank Negara Malaysia in the 1980s and 1990s.