Judge Hanipah Farikullah today granted leave to Mohamed Azmin Ali and Zahid Md Arip to hear their judicial review applications. She dismissed the government’s preliminary objection.
Zahid’s lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdullah said the judge was not convinced by the argument raised that his client lacked the locus standi to file the application.
“She also noted that the applications (of Azmin and Zahid) are not frivolous and they have met the threshold to obtain leave,” he told reporters.
He said the judge pointed out that the government could raise locus standi issues when the merit of the application was heard.
Haniff said case management had been fixed for Feb 15.
Counsel Tommy Thomas appeared for Azmin, who is Gombak MP and PKR deputy president.
Senior Federal Counsel Suzanah Atan and Shamsul Bolhassan appeared for the government.
Zahid, an ex-PKR deputy Youth chief, had filed the application against Prime Minister Najib Razak and Auditor-General (A-G) Ambrin Buang, citing both could not hide behind the Official Secrets Act (OSA) in refusing to make public the A-G’s report.
“Classifying it under OSA is a breach of the law,” he said in the application for the judicial review.
He said the audit report should be presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong when it was completed.
Zahid said there was a conflict of interest in classifying the audit report as a government secret as the prime minister was alleged to have been involved in the scandal.
Azmin, in his judicial review application, cited Ambrin’s testimony during Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli’s trial under the OSA that he, as the A-G, had done it on the instruction of Najib.
Azmin, however, said there was a conflict of interest on Najib’s part due to the latter’s role at that time as 1MDB adviser.