Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, representing the government in Bersatu’s legal challenge, said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) notified the immigration department that the ban was lifted on March 22.

Shamsul said that since the ban has been revoked, Muhyiddin and Bersatu’s bid to challenge it has now been rendered academic.

“He (Muhyiddin) was charged (in the sessions court) last month and the court had ordered him to surrender his passport as part of his bail conditions,” he said.

He said Muhyiddin may request the court to release his passport temporarily if he wished to travel.

The Bersatu president and Pagoh MP had previously claimed that the travel ban was wrongly imposed on him and that he was not notified of it.

He also said the ban was aimed at tarnishing his reputation and made it seem as if he had committed a crime and was seeking to abscond.

It also violated his constitutional rights, he said.

Bersatu had also filed a bid to challenge MACC’s decision to freeze its bank accounts, on grounds that it was done in bad faith.

Lawyer Rosli Dahlan, appearing for the party, told the court there were still “live issues” which needed to be ventilated at a substantive judicial review hearing.

He said the court must allow the case to proceed to the next stage.

Rosli also pointed out that the immigration department had filed affidavits claiming that the travel ban was requested by MACC, but did not provide sufficient justification as to why it was necessary.

“They (immigration department) only passed the blame to MACC.

“There was also no notice informing (Muhyiddin) that he was banned from travelling, until he discovered it himself when he wanted to go and speak at an overseas forum,” he said.

Besides that, the lawyer said, MACC’s decision to freeze Bersatu’s accounts was made in bad faith and the court should inquire into the agency’s decision-making process.

He said chief commissioner Azam Baki and his senior officer, Hishamuddin Hashim, were “problematic” individuals as Azam was “previously implicated” in “shares trading”, and Hishamuddin in the “Teoh Beng Hock case”.

“Nothing has been said about their ‘misconduct’ under this government,” said Rosli.

He said the investigations, account-freezing and prosecution brought against Muhyiddin and Bersatu had been done collaterally by the government to destroy the opposition party.

“The opposition cannot be killed, or else democracy will die,” he added.

Justice Ahmad Kamal Shahid told the lawyer to refrain from making a “political speech” in court.

In response, Shamsul said MACC’s freezing order cannot be reviewed by the courts, as it was part and parcel of an investigation process.

He said the courts had, in the past, taken a position that “allowing judicial review against the exercise of functions in relation to criminal investigation would give the public room to challenge every other exercise of such function, which will lead to much chaos and public disorder”.

Kamal fixed May 17 for a decision on whether to allow Bersatu’s bid to commence judicial review.