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Media Statement
by Karpal Singh  
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(Kuala Lumpur, Thursday) : Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz,, says that he left legal practice in 1995 and has no interest in his previous legal firm. However, his name still appears in the signboard and letterheads of the firm. His name has not been deleted from the name of the firm. This brings into focus the necessity of ensuring that lawyers, who subsequently become Cabinet Ministers, should ensure that their names do not appear signboards and letterheads of their previous legal firms. At present, there are many legal firms carrying names of Cabinet Ministers who have retired as legal practitioners.

I call upon the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, to ensure that names of Cabinet Ministers do not appear in the name of legal firms to ensure transparency. Is the purpose and motive of having names of incumbent Cabinet Ministers in the names of legal firms they have left to attract clients? There is, no doubt, that such a situation should not be allowed to perpetuate.

(8/2/2007)