The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 I will be brief, Sir.

¶ 02 Hon. Prime Minister, thank you very much for your response; we are being reassured in some way. But, yet, when I see the newspapers, the response by the Attorney-General’s Department, as it has been reported, relates to a very puerile argument relating to a lapse in the identification parade of the suspects and that that prompted the proceeding with the nolle prosequi, withdrawing of indictment or charge sheet against the so-called suspects. It is a very, very funny thing.

¶ 03 Your own Government, in your Manifesto and in your election propaganda, made it very clear that you would establish an independent Prosecutor’s Office instead of the Attorney-General handling these matters directly. Therefore, with this new matter coming up, we feel that the prosecutorial discretion of the Attorney-General’s Department is being used willy-nilly to free selected people for other political purposes and other extraneous reasons. I am sorry to say that. Our Attorney-General’s Department has very high-ranking, good and very conscientious officers. It is being hampered by a serious lack of personnel and you have to recruit more officers. Those issues are there, but this type of lapse regarding a high-profile case of this nature is a very serious matter. Therefore, on behalf of the Opposition, I now give notice, provided that the Committee on Parliamentary Business — we are not a part of that Committee — agree, that we want a full-day debate on this particular issue so that this matter should be fully thrashed out and it should never recur. Thank you.