For the sec­ond time this month, a par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tee was abrupt­ly sus­pend­ed, with Guardian Me­dia un­der­stand­ing the is­sue was the pres­ence of em­bat­tled Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Min­istry of Jus­tice, the Po­lice Ser­vice and the Ju­di­cia­ry were al­ready seat­ed for the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty’s as­sess­ment of the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (Elec­tron­ic Mon­i­tor­ing) Act, 2012.

The meet­ing, sched­uled to be­gin at 1.15 pm, moved in­to an in-cam­era ses­sion where sources said com­mit­tee mem­ber Dr Roodal Mooni­lal ob­ject­ed to John-Bates’ con­tin­ued par­tic­i­pa­tion, cit­ing con­cerns over her con­duct dur­ing a Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) meet­ing ear­li­er this month on the State’s ac­qui­si­tion of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.