KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Lim Kit Siang demanded today updates on the “super task force” purportedly set up by Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal in 2009, saying despite its four-year existence, the panel had yet to divulge details of its findings.

The DAP veteran, responding to yesterday’s acquittal of Tun Dr Ling Ling Sik from the case, said it was now more likely that despite the brouhaha over the scandal, no one would eventually be held responsible for the ballooning cost of the project.

He said yesterday’s ruling by Justice Ahmad Asnawi was especially “shocking” as the judge had appeared to suggest that Dr Ling, the former transport minister, could not be held accountable for any mistakes as he was not the ministry’s “number one” but only its “transporter”.

“If any, the blame should be apportioned wholly and squarely upon the officers of the Transport Ministry who drafted and prepared the same,” the judge had said, according to Lim.

“Isn’t this as good as a ‘blank cheque’ for all ministers that they enjoy immunity and impunity for whatever dereliction of duties in the course of official duties, including up to Cabinet level?” the Gelang Patah MP asked.

He said with the decision, Malaysia would continue to be a land of “heinous crimes without criminals”, with Malaysians continuously forced to pay for corruption scandals and the authorities, forever failing to bring culprits to book.

Lim likened the PKFZ case to the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s days, noting that it had similarly been a case of a “heinous crime” without any criminals.

The lawmaker reminded Najib that in 2009, it was he who formed a “super task force” to investigate the PKFZ case but since then, not an iota of news regarding the panel’s findings has been made public.

“What has happened to this PKFZ ‘Super Task Force’?” he asked. “Has the present Chief Secretary Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa taken over this  PKFZ ‘Super Task Force’ or has it closed shop and  gone defunct?.”

“Over to Najib to break another item of his long list of ‘elegant silences’ as to the outcome of efforts to bring those responsible for the massive PKFZ scandal to account and justice – or is this another example of the failures of Najib’s Government Transformation Programme’s Corruption NKRA to eradicate “grand corruption”?” he added.

Dr Ling, who was transport minister from 1986 to 2003, was acquitted by the High Court here yesterday of cheating charges over a land purchase for the PKFZ project, ending a trial that had spanned over two years.

He was charged in 2010 with deceiving the Cabinet into approving the land purchase for the PKFZ project, despite knowing that the approval would result in wrongful losses for the government.

Dr Ling also faced two alternative charges of deceiving the Cabinet into believing that the land purchase’s terms — at RM25 psf plus 7.5 per cent interest — had the acknowledgment and agreement of the Land Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) despite knowing that there was no such agreement.

The criminal offences were allegedly committed between September 25 and November 6 in 2002, a few months before the former MCA president stopped serving as a transport minister.

If convicted on the first charge, he would have been liable to a punishment under section 418 of the Penal Code of a maximum jail term of seven years, or a fine, or both.

The alternative charges carry a lighter sentence under section 417 of the Penal Code with a jail term of up to five years, or a fine, or both.