First-term Rompin MP is new PAC chief

(Malay Mail Online) – The newly-elected Rompin MP Datuk Hasan Arifin will be made Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman come Monday, replacing Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed who was appointed deputy home minister in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.

The parliamentary order paper sighted by Malay Mail Online showed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be making the announcement on October 19, the first day of the last session of Parliament sitting for 2015.

“The honourable Datuk Hasan Arifin, the Rompin parliamentary member is chosen to replace the honourable Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, the parliamentary member for Pulai, as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee for the 13th parliamentary session,” paragraph two of the order paper read.

Opposition party leaders told the Malay Mail Online that Hasan, a corporate figure, is a good choice to replace Nur Jazlan, given the former’s finance background.

The PAC had been investigating 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) until then chairman Jazlan was appointed deputy home minister and three other members brought into the administration in July.

Its inquiry was then suspended after Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia ruled that the committee could not proceed until a new chairman is appointed.

Hasan won the Rompin by-election in May, defeating PAS by a 8,895 vote majority.

The set fell vacant after its then MP, Tan Sri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis perished in a helicopter crash along with five others on April 4, in Semenyih, Selangor.