KOTA KINABALU, Aug 7 — In challenging the dissolution of the Sabah legislative assembly, lawyers acting for Tan Sri Musa Aman and 32 other state lawmakers also questioned the constitutional authority of head of state Tun Juhar Mahiruddin in making that decision.

State Attorney-General Brenndon Keith Soh told reporters in court today that the High Court will first have to decide if it has the authority to hear the case.

"The main question is whether the TYT’s decision is justiciable. The judge has asked us for further submissions on Monday,” Soh said after the hearing that was open only to limited media.

He said judicial commissioner Leonard David Shim asked lawyers representing Musa to make submissions into whether the court has the right to question the Yang DiPertua Negeri’s decision, adding that a decision will be made only after hearing both sides.

Former chief minister Musa filed a judicial review of Juhar’s decision to dissolve the state assembly on July 30. He named Juhar as first respondent, caretaker chief minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal as second respondent and the Election Commission and Sabah state government as third and fourth respondent respectively.

The application for review is also seeking to put on hold the upcoming state polls in the wake of the dissolution.

Musa’s lawyer Tengku Fuad Ahmad

Musa’s lawyer Tengku Fuad Ahmad told reporters that his client contends that Juhar was "improperly advised” into giving his consent to dissolving the assembly.

"Our case is that he was improperly advised to dissolve the state assembly under Article 21(2) of the State Constitution.

"We also state that the governor failed to exercise his constitutionally mandated discretion to consider Musa, who had commanded the simple majority of the legislative assembly to be sworn in as chief minister,” he said.

However, Soh argued that Juhar as head of state, has absolute discretionary powers to dissolve the assembly and that his decision is not questionable by court.

"There is nothing in the constitution that says the advice must be in written form in order for the TYT to act on,” said Soh.

He also said that the statutory declarations by the 33 assemblymen in support of Musa only occurred after the dissolution was granted.

The dissolution was announced by Shafie on July 30, a day after Musa announced to reporters that he had the support of a simple majority to form government with the defection of some 13 assemblymen from the Warisan-led government.

Shafie said he had met with Juhar on the night of July 29 with a written request to dissolve the Assembly due to political threats seeking to topple and destabilise the government.

On July 30 morning, Shafie announced that he had obtained the consent of the governor to dissolve the assembly.

Musa then called for another press conference to say he had 33 assemblymen in his camp, and could form government instead of going to polls. His entourage later tried but was prevented from entering the Istana Negeri in a police roadblock.