THE government has no influence over court decisions, said Pakatan Harapan lawmakers in rubbishing Najib Razak’s lament after a judge refused to allow him to attend Parliament in the midst of his corruption trial.

Earlier this week Najib had made an application for an adjournment of his SRC International trial so that he could attend Parliament. The application was rejected.

Najib made a brief appearance in Parliament on Thursday as there was no trial on that day. In commenting on the court decision, he told reporters that the Barisan Nasional government under him was more lenient compared to the PH government.

His main grouse was that he was not granted an adjournment from his ongoing trial to attend the debates on the lowering of the voting age in Parliament.

Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil told The Malaysian Insight that it was ridiculous for Najib to say that the ruling coalition lacked leniency as they had no say over the court decision.

“It is ridiculous for Najib to say that PH government is not lenient. It is intellectually dishonest of him to say this because court is not in session now (Thursday).

“He sat down for all of what seemed like five minutes and he got up and left.

“He did not seem bothered to come and debate. I think he is being absolutely unjust to the people who elected him,” said Fahmi.

The PKR communications director added that Najib should stop this “charade”, face the facts and own up to his past errors.

Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin said it is the discretion of the judge to decide whether to grant Najib permission to skip court for Parliament.

Recounting his own experience, Hanipa who is a lawyer, said there were times where he too could not attend Parliament as he was not granted permission.

“We never made noise about it,” he said, adding that the government had no influence over the court.

Ipoh Timur MP Wong Kah Woh said it has to be clear that the judiciary and the legislative are different entities, hence Parliament or the government cannot influence court decisions.

“It is not for PH and anyone in this chamber to decide whether Najib’s trial should go on or not.”. – July 5, 2019.