Nurul Izzah's appointment 'legally right but morally wrong', says Pasir Gudang MP

PETALING JAYA: A PKR MP has questioned the appointment of Nurul Izzah Anwar as economics and finance senior adviser to the Prime Minister.

Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim said "a friend who is a Pakatan Harapan supporter" asked what I thought about Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim appointing his daughter Nurul Izzah.

"My answer was simple – (it is) 'legally right but morally wrong'," he said in a Facebook post on Monday (Jan 30).

In Ipoh on Sunday (Jan 29), Anwar had said that his daughter would not receive a salary or an allowance for the adviser role.

Some have claimed that the Prime Minister's act of appointing his daughter as his advisor amounted to nepotism while others questioned his commitment to institutional reforms and weeding out cronyism, something which Anwar had been very vocal about.

Nurul Izzah had revealed in an exclusive interview with Sunday Star that she had been serving as senior adviser to the Prime Minister since Jan 3.

"It is my fervent hope that my past experience in the legislature as an MP, work on poverty and technical and vocational education, and service on the Public Accounts Committee can be leveraged in my engagement with experts in navigating economic governance, accountability and evidence-based policies," she said.