Deputy House Speak­er Dr Aiy­na Ali has re­ject­ed a mo­tion seek­ing leave to re­fer House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh to Par­lia­ment’s Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee, over al­le­ga­tions of bias and con­flict of in­ter­est linked to a par­lia­men­tary in­quiry in­to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

The mo­tion was brought by Op­po­si­tion MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les, who ar­gued that Singh’s pre­vi­ous pub­lic com­ments on the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­dus­try raised con­cerns about par­lia­men­tary stan­dards and pro­ce­dur­al fair­ness with­in the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC).

Dur­ing de­bate in the House yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les re­ferred to a mi­nor­i­ty re­port con­nect­ed to the com­mit­tee’s spe­cial re­port dat­ed April 17, 2026, which crit­i­cised the con­duct and lead­er­ship of the com­mit­tee.