KUALA LUMPUR: The second session of the Dewan Rakyat which will kick off next week will see the first of a number of Parliament reforms being put in place.
This will be in the form of limiting the question and answer (Q&A) session for each federal lawmaker to six minutes.
Dewan Rakyat Secretary Datuk Roosme Hamzah said the time limit for each Q&A session was decided upon by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.
"This move will see more questions being replied by the ministries in the one and a half hour session allocated for the Q&A session in Dewan Rakyat which is in line with Standing Order 24(5) of the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders," she said in a statement today.
Roosme said Members of Parliament were notified on the new time limit on March 4.
The Q&A Session which kicks off the proceedings of the Lower House of Parliament is between 10am to 11.30am.
The Dewan Rakyat convenes from Monday to Thursday with sittings beginning at 10am and lasting until 5.30pm, with a lunch break from 1pm and 2.30pm.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) had pledged to reform Parliament as part of its 14th General Election (GE14) manifesto.
Meanwhile, Roosme said the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah will open the second session of the first meeting of the 14th Parliament involving both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara on March 11.
Following the opening, the Dewan Rakyat will sit for 20 days until April 11 while the Dewan Negara will sit for 12 days from April 22 to May 9.
The first two weeks of the Dewan Rakyat will be devoted to the debate involving the Motion of Thanks on the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong's Speech during the opening of Parliament, with the third week set aside for replies from the respective ministries.
The final week of sitting would involve other government businesses.