KUALA LUMPUR: A special task force headed by former attorney general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali will be formed to review laws relating to the Pulau Batu Puteh case.

       Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the task force will conduct thorough research and propose suitable options by getting views from experts on international laws.

       "Such efforts will be aimed at re-checking laws relating to the review, interpretation and application to the case. Cabinet has also decided to get legal views relating to the laws of the tort of misfeasance,” said Ismail Sabri.

       He said in a statement on Saturday (Oct 9) this is with regards to any party who has committed negligence or mistakes in not resuming the review and interpretation of the case

       Ismail Sabri added that the task force will be given six months to produce findings and recommendations that will be tabled at a Cabinet meeting for further action.

       Last month, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed an application by the Prime Minister and the government for a time extension to file their statement of defence against a suit regarding the withdrawal of the review application over the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision that Singapore has sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh.

       Judge Rozana Ali Yusoff gave the Prime Minister and the government until Oct 23 to file their statements of defence in their capacity as the first and second defendants respectively

       Based on the notice of application filed on Sept 7, the defendants had applied for more time on the grounds that the plaintiff’s statement of claim was loaded with matters related to the history of the Pulau Batu Puteh dispute between Malaysia and Singapore since 1979.

       As such, the defendants would need to scrutinise each related document before responding to the historical facts as raised in the plaintiff’s statement of claim, they said in the notice of application.