The Kuala Lumpur High Court decision yesterday which reinstated Pakatan Rakyat's Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as the legitimate menteri besar of Perak, has in effect made the May 7 state assembly sitting invalid.

As such all four motions passed during the sitting, including the installation of R Ganesan as the speaker, are similarly invalid, said Nizar at a press conference at 12.30am today at his rented home in Sungai Rokam, near Ipoh.

Nizar said this is because the court had ruled that he was the legitimate menteri besar at all material times, including when Barisan Nasional-appointed Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir had called for the state assembly sitting.

sivakumar being dragged abused manhandled by security unknown individual out perak state assembly chaos 070509 the best During the May 7 sitting, BN installed Ganesan as the assembly speaker under controversial circumstances which saw incumbent speaker V Sivakumar being forcefully dragged out of the speaker's chair.

"(Ganesan) did not even take his oath," Nizar said, adding that neither Ganesan nor the BN has the authority to call for an emergency sitting now.

Ganesan and several other BN leaders have publicly mooted the idea of sacking Nizar as the menteri besar through a vote of no-confidence in an emergency sitting, expected to be called within the next few days.

"As far as we are concerned, they have no right to call for an assembly. How can they call for a sitting when they don't have the legitimacy to do so?" Nizar asked.

Tree assembly stands

Asked if this would result in an automatic dissolution of the state assembly after May 13, Nizar said that was not an issue because an emergency sitting had been held in March.

(The last sitting before the BN takeover of the Perak government in February was held last November. The assembly will be deemed to be dissolved if no meeting is held for more than six months.)

"Our constitution doesn't specifically say this. The constitution is silent on this part... We don't have a problem. We have until September (to hold the sitting) because our last sitting was on March 3, under the tree," he said.

perak state govt crisis the rain tree assembly 040309 02 Nizar was referring to the emergency sitting held under a tree after police and civil servants locked up the state assembly to prevent the proceedings.

Zambry failed to obtain a court ruling to invalidate the 'tree assembly' but a motion was passed at the May 7 sitting to declare it illegal.

Nizar stressed that his immediate priority is to seek royal consent for the dissolution of the state assembly, so that fresh elections can be called in order to resolve the political deadlock.