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Wan Fayhsal to face 6-month suspension from Dewan Rakyat?

KUALA LUMPUR: Bersatu member of parliament Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal is facing a possible six-month suspension from the Dewan Rakyat.

Based on the Parliament order paper for the Dewan Rakyat tomorrow, a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department is expected to table a motion against the Machang MP following the latter's act of citing a poison pen letter, which mentioned an alleged mastermind behind Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) privatisation.

The order paper said that Wan Fayhsal's reference of the letter had a detrimental effect not only to the individual or alleged mastermind, but also towards government officers who may be unfairly harmed by the baseless allegations.

"There shall be no mention of the conduct or the character of government officers in debates by MPs, except in relation to their official duties as government officers.

"The allegations made by Machang (Wan Fayhsal) deems to degrade the dignity of ministry officials who have diligently assisted the administrative members in developing Malaysia," it said.

Wan Fayshal is reported to have made a reference to the poison pen letter when debating the annual report of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) for 2021 and 2022 in Dewan Rakyat earlier this month.

He had also named an Employee Provident Fund (EPF) employee with a high-ranking position for allegedly being involved in MAHB's privatisation.

Meanwhile, Wan Fayhsal said in a statement that he would hold a press conference to address the matter tomorrow.

Previously, sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah) announced it was leading a consortium known as the Gateway Development Alliance (GDA) in a conditional voluntary offer to buy all shares in MAHB that it did not own.

Besides GIP through GIP Aureus Pte Ltd, the consortium's shareholders also included EPF and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia).

However, concerns arose after BlackRock, an Israeli-linked company, acquired GIP with the transaction expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, however, assured that despite BlackRock acquiring GIP, the management of GIP will retain full control and responsibility over the strategic direction of the company and the companies it invested in.

He also said the share deal with GIP through the MAHB consortium had allowed Khazanah Nasional and EPF's ownership to increase from 41 per cent to 70 per cent.  

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