Its deputy president Yee Moh Chai said the incumbent state government was merely complying with a court decision in which Warisan played no role.

“The Warisan-led government would be in contempt of court if they didn’t follow the court decision to extend the land tenure from 99 years to 999 years.

“As usual, Warisan is claiming credit for doing something which they are obliged to do (and this) is only cheap, shameless and misleading,” he said in a statement here today.

Caretaker chief minister Shafie Apdal had made the announcement on the restoration of the lease title to its original 999-year tenure during a visit to the Nabawan interior district last weekend.

Shafie had said it would involve 5,978 leases, adding that this was decided by the state Cabinet on June 17.

State Land and Survey Department director Bernard Liew said the lease period was reduced to 99 years during the 1990s but that a High Court decision in March had made this unlawful, adding that the state government decided to rectify this mistake to comply with the court ruling.

On Feb 27, the High Court here delivered a landmark decision by declaring that conditions set by the Land and Survey Department to reduce the leasehold tenure from 999 years to 99 years for approval of the development and subdivision of land was unlawful and null and void.