Quarantine issue: Does it warrant a suit for asking? - Puad Zarkashi

KUALA LUMPUR: An emergency cannot be used as an excuse to prevent the people from asking and seeking clarification on the quarantine issue.

UMNO Supreme Council member, Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi, said it includes when the minister uses the 'order' in the Federal Gazette in the three-day quarantine issue.

"But is that what allows the minister to make an "order" to use the Federal Gazette? For example, a minister who returns from abroad will be quarantined for 3 days and no longer for 10 days.

"Is that the purpose of an emergency? To meet the needs and comfort of the minister?

"Do not use an emergency to prevent the people from asking and seeking for an explanation. Does it warrant a suit for asking?" he asked in the latest post on his Facebook account, on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) demanded that Mohd Puad apologise publicly following his allegation that a three-day quarantine order for a minister visiting abroad was gazetted by the government because the Prime Minister refused to be quarantined on his return from an official visit to Indonesia.

The PMO, in a statement, stressed that legal action would be taken if he failed to do so.