He said this in relation to Anwar’s threat to take legal action against him if he failed to produce the names of retired military personnel who had not received their gratuity payments.
“On the lawsuit threat by LTAT, I challenge Anwar and Lodin to sue me in their personal capacity using their own money to pay for legal costs.
“I will be disappointed if they use the retired military personnel’s contributions to sue me since they have failed to deny all the facts I put forward,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here today.
On March 21, Rafizi claimed that the delays in gratuity payments to non-pensionable veteran soldiers could be the result of dealings between the LTAT and debt-ridden state investment arm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
In response to this allegation, Anwar said Rafizi had made a number of “unfounded and misleading connections” between the Pangkalan Udara Kuala Lumpur (PUKL) project undertaken by LTAT’s subsidiary Perbadanan Perwira Hartanah Malaysia (PPHM) and the gratuity payments by LTAT for members who had concluded their service with the armed forces.
Yesterday, LTAT refuted claims by the PKR secretary-general that 110 veterans were not paid gratuity, saying that 70 on the list had already received their respective payments.
“He (Anwar) said 69 retirees had been paid between March 16 and April 4. I would like to know when exactly did LTAT make the payments?
“I’m sure that most of them (retirees) were only paid on April 4, a few days after I gave the name list to LTAT.”
Rafizi claimed he still received complaints of delays in gratuity payments, and added that he would send a new list comprising 81 retirees who still had not received theirs.
Out of the 81 retirees, Rafizi said, 75 had not received their payments from LTAT since they retired.