THE gazetted ban on cartoonist Zunar’s book, Sapuman – Man of Steel, will be re-evaluated by the Home Ministry.

His lawyer, N. Surendran, today said federal attorney Muzilah Mohd Arshad has informed judge Azizah Nawawi that the Attorney-General’s Chambers will wait for further instructions from the ministry.

Azizah then delayed the hearing of Zunar’s case challenging the ministry’s ban on his artwork.

The book, published in Bahasa Malaysia and English, was banned in October last year.

Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee S.M. Anwar Ulhaque, filed the challenge in January.

He named the ministry as the first defendant and the government as the second, with a request that the ban order be deemed invalid because it is ultra vires Section 7 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA) and denies Article 5 (individual freedom), Article 8 (equal rights) and Article 10(1)(a) of the constitution, relating to freedom of speech.

Outside the court today, Zunar said the Pakatan Harapan government must keep its promise to repeal oppressive legislation, like PPPA, immediately.

“Maybe the new government is better than the one before, but if the law is still around, it will be used, maybe not by the current government, but the next. Therefore, PPPA should be one of the acts to be abolished.”

Surendran demanded that former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail issue a statement explaining why he had used his powers as prosecutor to approve nine charges against the cartoonist and several others.

“In 2014 and earlier, when Gani was A-G, a lot of opposition politicians were charged under this cruel act.

“Gani has to explain why he did that or gave such orders,” said the lawyer, who is also facing charges under the Sedition Act after he commented on the hearing of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim in 2014. – June 7, 2018.