Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les is ask­ing Par­lia­ment to re­fer House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh to the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges, ac­cus­ing him of bias, con­tempt of Par­lia­ment and fail­ing to de­clare a con­flict of in­ter­est dur­ing a key par­lia­men­tary in­quiry in­to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal pro­cure­ment.

The move stems from Singh’s role as chair­man of the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC), which ex­am­ined the State’s ac­qui­si­tion and man­age­ment of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals in the pub­lic health sys­tem.

In an eight-page let­ter to Deputy Speak­er Dr Aiy­na Ali yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les al­leges that the Speak­er breached par­lia­men­tary priv­i­lege and should have re­cused him­self from the in­quiry due to pub­lic com­ments be­fore as­sum­ing of­fice.