Two po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts have of­fered dif­fer­ent pre­scrip­tions for Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les as pres­sure mounts over the fu­ture of em­bat­tled Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates.

The con­tro­ver­sy in­ten­si­fied on Wednes­day when a par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tee was abrupt­ly sus­pend­ed, with re­ports in­di­cat­ing ob­jec­tions to John-Bates’ pres­ence.

Sources say com­mit­tee mem­ber Dr Roodal Mooni­lal raised con­cerns tied to her con­duct dur­ing an ear­li­er sit­ting of the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC), which ex­am­ined the State’s ac­qui­si­tion of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.