Nizar proposes coffeeshop venue.

Tuesday March 3, 2009 | staronline | IPOH

The emergency sitting today can be held “even at a coffeeshop” if the state assemblymen are barred from entering the House, said former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.

He said such measures would have to be taken following reports that the state secretariat, where the assembly is located, would be locked to prevent the session from taking place.

Nizar said he believed the authorities would open the doors to them.

“But if they lock them, it is a clear contempt of the Dewan.”

Nizar said Speaker V. Sivakumar had the prerogative to call for the sitting.

Sivakumar had personally sent signed notices to all representatives to turn up today for the emergency session except for Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and his six exco members whom he suspended from assembly sittings.

Sivakumar also did not send notices to Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, Changkat Jering assemblyman Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu and Jelapang assemblyman Hee Yit Foong.

The three assemblymen had quit their respective parties and became independents, causing the Pakatan Rakyat government to fall.

At 7.45pm, Sivakumar announced that Perak Assembly Secretary Abdullah Antong Sabri had been suspended for failing to act impartially.

“I am suspending him from his position with immediate effect and I am appointing Mohd Misbahul Munir Masduki as the Dewan Secretary,” Sivakumar said at a 7.45pm press conference at his lawyer Chan Kok Keong’s office here yesterday,

Misbahul was Nizar’s political secretary.