PKR parliamentarian Wee Choo Keong has demanded that Najib Abdul Razak suspends his political secretary Shafie Abdullah, pending the outcome of an investigation.

Shafie serves premier Najib in his capacity as finance minister.vk lingam hearing wee choo keong pc thirunama 180108 stern

Wee (left), the Wangsa Maju MP and a lawyer, had accused Shafie of trying to intimidate him in Parliament House. The incident is being probed by a special parliamentary committee.

The demand is based on the procedure to suspend civil servants without pay if they are under investigation by the authorities.

"I hope Shafie is suspended from his position so the investigation can be conducted smoothly,” Wee told a press conference in the Parliament lobby today.

"However, if he wants to take care of the boss' interest and the prime minister's image, (Shafie) should tender his resignation.”

On the same note, he described the setting up of the special committee as a "warning" to all the political secretaries that “they don't have any right to interfere with the work of parliamentarians”.

parliament speaker pandikar amin pc 250608 02"If they are not happy (with any allegation against them), tell that to their bosses (who) can convey the message in the House," he said.

The special committee will be chaired by speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia (right), with deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee as deputy chairperson, and comprise members of parliament from both sides of the political divide.

They include Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu), Fong Chan Onn (BN-Alor Gajah), Nancy Shukri (BN-Batang Sadong), Sivarasa Rasiah (PKR-Subang), N Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) and Kamaruddin Jaafar (PAS-Tumpat).

'Prima facie case'

Wee said the establishment of the special committee indicates that "there is a prima facie case" against Shafie.

kolam renang biawak 091208 shafie abdullah"It also shows that Parliament is a supreme body, where parliamentarians have absolute privilege to (make statements in the House). Not even the prime minister has power to stop us from doing so.”

The move to set up the special committee was made following Wee's urgent motion tabled last week, urging the House to take action against Shafie.

Wee claimed that Shafie (right) had approached him in the lobby, soon after issues about the latter were raised during debate.

During the debate, Wee had said Shafie has been interfering in various Kuala Lumpur City Hall decisions and, consequently, labelled him the "de facto federal territories minister".

Shafie had refused to comment on the matter when approached by reporters last week.