A Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) stal­wart has crit­i­cised Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi, ac­cus­ing him of fail­ing to prop­er­ly guide fel­low sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates, as ques­tions con­tin­ue to mount over her fu­ture in the Up­per House.

John-Bates was re­moved from the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) on April 16, two days af­ter con­cerns arose over the al­leged edit­ing of a wit­ness state­ment by for­mer health min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh ahead of his ap­pear­ance be­fore the com­mit­tee.

The PAAC is cur­rent­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing the pro­cure­ment and im­por­ta­tion of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, as it seeks to un­cov­er what it has de­scribed as “un­fair trade prac­tices.”