Barisan Nasional (BN) members of Parliament will not insist on the setting up of a parliamentary select committee on water management if the cabinet rejects it, BN Backbenchers' Club chairperson Shahrir Abdul Samad stated today.

Instead, we will request that the government let us have the draft bills for study before they are tabled in Parliament, he told malaysiakini when contacted.

Shahrir who is the MP for Johor Bahru said the backbenchers will have to go along the line of the government if it persists on the urgency to set up a regulatory body.

"Of course, it will be ideal if the cabinet can agree to set up the select committee as this was proposed by BN MPs, not opposition MPs. We will be very happy if the cabinet can agree on that," he said.

The government wants to table the National Water Service Commission Bill and the National Water Services Industry Bill during the current session of Parliament which will end on April 28. But it could not do so now with the opposition from parliamentarians.

Only with the passing of both bills in Parliament could the government set up the National Water Services Commission (Span) to monitor the privatised water industry.

Sharir said the backbencher club has also suggested that the government present the draft bills to MPs at the end of the current parliamentary session.

Sufficient time

"This will give us time to study it before the next parliamentary meeting begins in June," he said.

He also hoped the government would not rush through the reading of the bills in Parliament, suggesting that if the first reading is tabled in the June session, then the second and third reading should only be tabled in September.

Shahrir stressed that MPs must be given sufficient time to form their own groups as well as to study the draft bills if no select committee is set up.

The next parliamentary session is from June 20 to July 12, while the following one is slated from Sept 19 to Dec 8.

After briefing MPs on the water bills yesterday, Energy, Water and Communications Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik said he would re-submit the proposal to set up a select committee on water management to the cabinet.

In the briefing, the minister was said have been pressured by MPs from both sides of the House to set up the committee.

BN and opposition leaders have also pressured the government to set up the committee during their debates in Parliament.

However, in his winding-up speech, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said the plan to form a select committee was dropped because the King wanted the water privatisation programme to be in place by the end of the year.

The constitution had been earlier amended during a special parliamentary sitting on Jan18 and 19 to enable the transfer of jurisdiction of water management to the federal government.