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THE government has agreed to restore RM730,300 in allocations to the Muar parliamentary constituency following an agreement in principle with its MP, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, to settle a legal dispute over the withdrawal of constituency funds.
Lawyer Lim Wei Jiet, representing Syed Saddiq and three Muar voters, told the Federal Court today that both parties had reached an agreement to resolve the dispute amicably.
He said the settlement included the restoration of RM500,000 in constituency welfare allocations for 2023, which had previously been withdrawn, and RM230,300 for specific projects involving schools, surau and villages under the MyKHAS system.
"The applicants and respondents reached an agreement yesterday to resolve this dispute.
"Among the matters agreed upon was the government's restoration of the RM500,000 allocation for 2023, as well as RM230,300 for specific projects under MyKHAS," he said.
Lim said both parties were now working out the most appropriate mechanism and detailed terms to formalise the settlement in court.
He said the applicants had requested a case management date for the court to record a consent judgment once the details had been finalised.
Senior Federal Counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi, representing the respondents, also confirmed the development.
A Federal Court panel chaired by Sabah and Sarawak Chief Judge Datuk Seri Azizah Nawawi fixed Dec 7 for case management, when both parties are expected to update the court on the arrangements for channelling the allocations.
Also sitting on the panel were Federal Court judges Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali and Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
On April 23, 2024, Syed Saddiq and three Muar voters — Najib Abu Nawar, Mohd Bakirudin Abdullah and Muhamad Fadzly Bisri — filed the application, naming the Prime Minister and the Malaysian government as the first and second respondents.
They sought a court order to quash the decision to withhold RM500,000 from a total allocation of RM1.7 million, which was supposed to be channelled directly into the Muar Parliamentary Service Centre's bank account to fund community welfare programmes, assistance and disaster relief.
They also sought the restoration of Syed Saddiq's access to the MyKHAS system, which manages RM2 million in constituency development funds, and challenged the cancellation of several projects worth RM230,300 that had been approved through the system.
The applicants further sought to overturn the respondents' refusal to approve or provide allocations to Syed Saddiq as Muar MP for Projek Mesra Rakyat or similar programmes in 2024.
The application was filed, among other grounds, on the basis that the respondents had violated the equality rights of Syed Saddiq as an MP and the three voters as constituents under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.
The High Court dismissed their application on Dec 24, 2024, while the Court of Appeal rejected their appeal on Oct 27 last year.
However, on March 10 this year, the Federal Court granted Syed Saddiq and the three voters leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision dismissing their bid to initiate judicial review proceedings over the government's decision to withdraw allocations to the constituency. - November 5, 2026
