Anwar’s lawyer, J Leela, said the hearing date was fixed following case management before Federal Court deputy registrar Mazuliana Abdul Rashid today.

Counsel Azureen Ibrahim represented lawyer Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz.

In civil cases, litigants must first obtain leave before the apex court proceeds to hear the merits of a complaint.

On Sept 21 last year, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal brought by Anwar, who was then Port Dickson MP, and the Pardons Board of Kuala Lumpur to strike out the suit filed against them by Khairul.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Has Zanah Mehat held that Khairul did not have the right to question the clemency and the advice given to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for the granting of the pardon to Anwar.

She said Khairul’s suit is “obviously unsustainable” as it did not disclose a proper cause of action.

Has Zanah, who sat with Justices Sofian Abdul Razak and Lee Heng Cheong, said the board’s power to pardon Anwar was not limited to sentence but also included his conviction.

She said the bench agreed with Anwar’s counsel and the board that power of pardon was non-justiciable (cannot be questioned in court), and Khairul had no legal standing to file the action.

On Sept 21, 2020, Anwar and the Pardons Board lost their bid in the High Court to strike out the lawsuit.

In his originating summons filed on Feb 26, 2020, Khairul claimed that several unconstitutional actions had been taken to ensure that Anwar received a pardon which released him from prison following the 14th general election on May 9, 2018.

He claimed that the pardon granted to Anwar by the King contravened Articles 42(4) and (5) of the Federal Constitution as it should be based on the advice of the board which he (Khairul) argued had not yet been formally formed following the general election and the formation of the new government.

Anwar had been sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomising his aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, and the conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015.