PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim should relieve Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of his duties as deputy prime minister in view of his ongoing court trial, says Bersatu deputy president Ahmad Faizal Azumu.
This comes after Zahid applied to the Kuala Lumpur High Court for the permanent return of his passport so that he can carry out his official duties smoothly.
The court is withholding his passport as one of the conditions of his bail pending the outcome of his corruption trial.
In an affidavit, Zahid said he needed his passport to effectively carry out his duties, which includes official trips overseas.
In a statement, Faizal said Zahid’s application would disrupt and delay the trial, since the Bagan Datuk MP would be away for official duties, thus prolonging the case.
“The best approach to this matter is for Anwar to relieve Zahid of his duties as deputy prime minister so that he can focus on his court process and prove that he is innocent,” said the former Tambun MP.
Zahid is accused of 47 counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust involving millions of ringgit from Yayasan Akalbudi and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as the home minister in the previous Barisan Nasional administration.
In his affidavit, Zahid, who is also the rural and regional development minister, said he needed his passport to apply for a diplomatic passport from the immigration department for his official duties.
He said with the return of the passport, he would no longer need to apply for a temporary release of his passport through the courts every time he needed to travel.
As such, he was applying to set aside the order to surrender his passport as part of the conditions of his bail.
