Namah questions Speaker

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
DEPUTY Speaker Koni Iguan waved down Vanimo-Green MP Belden Namah twice in Parliament yesterday when he tried to ask why he wasn’t recognised as the Opposition leader and about an issue pending in court.
Iguan gestured Namah not to raise the issues because his status was explained in parliament earlier and the transfer issue of Special Mining Lease (SML) of the Porgera mine was in court.
Namah had asked Iguan why he and Speaker Job Pomat were not recognising him as the Opposition leader after the court in July had quashed the leadership tribunal decision to dismiss him as the Vanimo-Green MP.
“On July 16, I won my judicial review application by which the decision of the leadership tribunal made on April 9, 2018 was quashed in its entirety,” Namah said.
“So can the (Speaker’s) chair confirm or deny that the chair did welcome me back as Vanimo-Green MP when the judicial review court granted me leave of judicial review which subsequently stayed the leadership tribunal decision made on April 9, 2018?
“Can the chair confirm or deny that Jema Lawyers, who are also lawyers to Prime Minister James Marape in the Supreme Court application that I filed on July 20 challenging the constitutional appointment of Marape as the prime minster on May 30, 2019 seeking confirmation from the Speaker of my recognition as the Opposition leader?”
However, Hela Governor Philip Undialu, Treasury Minister Ian Ling-Stuckey and Marape raised a point of order which eventually said that Pomat had already explained why they were not recognising Namah as the leader.
Iguan then stopped Namah, telling him to put his questions in writing and give it to Pomat so that he could answer him in the next Parliament session.
Namah then raised a question regarding the transfer of SML to Kumul Minerals Holdings Ltd.
However, Iguan told him that the matter was before the court and he couldn’t discuss it in Parliament.