KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Several PKR backbenchers who had objected to the original Bill to decouple the public prosecutor’s role from the Attorney General’s Chambers said today they welcomed the revised edition and would back its enactment.

Subang MP Wong Chen (PKR) cited the move to allow the House of Representatives to vet candidates for the post of public prosecutor as among the key reasons for their backing of the revised Bill.

“We welcome these changes as they meet all our expectations by giving Parliament a greater scrutiny role. As such, we pledge our full support for this Bill,” Wong Chen said at a press conference at the Parliament building here today.

Putrajaya has said it aims to table the draft legislation for its second reading this week.

Wong Chen along with several other PKR backbenchers, including then Pandan MP Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, initially rebelled against the first draft of the Constitution (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2026 saying it lacked robust parliamentary oversight and failed to remove executive influence over the public prosecutor.

They argued that simply splitting the roles of Attorney General (AG) and Public Prosecutor (PP) was useless if the prime minister retained absolute power to choose who holds those roles.

Any constitutional amendment would need two-thirds support of the Lower House to pass.

Wong Chen said he hopes the Bill would be debated alongside the Prime Minister's Term Limit Bill at this sitting.

However, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said has deferred its second reading to the next sitting in October.

“We would like to record our special thanks to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, to Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, and also several of the senior AGC officers for their positive support towards the amendments,” Wong Chen said on behalf himself and six other backbenchers.

The six other PKR backbenchers were Sungai Siput MP S. Kesavan, Ampang MP Rodziah Ismail, Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung, Wangsa Maju MP Zahir Hassan, Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim and Balik Pulau MP Datuk Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik.

Putrajaya has proposed seven sweeping changes to thekey reform Bill that it said would entirely isolate its top public prosecutor from executive and political influence.

One of the major proposals is placing the power to appoint future public prosecutors on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, who will act strictly on the independent advice of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (SPKP) without the involvement of the prime minister or the Cabinet.