KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — The government plans to strike out an originating summons filed by five Opposition MPs against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the government regarding the Malaysia-United States (US) Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART).
Senior Federal counsel Nurhafizza Azizan informed High Court Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh during case management that the striking-out application will be filed, requesting at least a fortnight to prepare.
S. Karthigesan, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, told the court that his clients would review and possibly expand the constitutional questions they intend to refer to the Federal Court under the ART, following a recent US Supreme Court ruling on tariffs.
“We need at least a week to review the US Supreme Court’s 170-page judgment and prepare the questions,” he said. The court then set March 16 as the next case management conference.
Meanwhile, following the proceedings, another plaintiff’s lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali told the media that while the proposed questions under Section 84 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 had been previously finalised, recent developments now required a reassessment.
On Friday (January 20), the US Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to hit nearly all of America’s trading partners with so-called reciprocal tariffs was unconstitutional.
Upholding the lower court’s findings, it also ruled that Trump overstepped his presidential powers when he used the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping global tariffs, as well as fentanyl-related duties on goods from China, Canada, and Mexico.
Malaysia and the US signed the ART on October 26 last year.
The five Perikatan Nasional lawmakers who filed the summons include Hulu Terengganu MP Datuk Rosol Wahid, Gerik MP Fathul Huzir Ayob, Pendang MP Datuk Awang Solahuddin Hashim, Masjid Tanah MP Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, and Rompin MP Datuk Abdul Khalid Abdullah.
They are seeking a Federal Court ruling on key constitutional issues regarding the validity of the agreement, which they allege was signed without proper Parliamentary approval.
