KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla has filed a suit to challenge the health minister’s new smoking ban on all workplace buildings in Malaysia as he wants his law firm exempted.
Haniff, a self-described “hardcore smoker,” wants his law firm to remain a designated smoking area, asserting that he should have the right to smoke in his own office as long as it doesn’t affect others.
The lawyer – who has represented several high-profile people like former two-time prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad – said that he had informed his employees, sent emails to his clients, and posted a notice outside his office about the continued status of his firm as a smoking area, despite the government’s ban.
“The firm’s management has set a fair mechanism where employees and/or clients and/or the public who choose not to work and/or handle their personal matters in a smoking area, can choose to take alternative steps,” he said in his filing to the High Court here yesterday in which he named the Malaysian government and health minister as defendants.
He added that he has offered his employees appropriate compensation should they decide not to continue working there to avoid exposure to the smoking, and said his clients have been told that they could transfer their files to any other law firm or lawyer.
Haniff, who said he has been a hardcore smoker since he was 21 years old in 1986 and smokes three packs a day, argued that smoking has been legally permitted in Malaysia for decades and is not a criminal activity.
He said he believed that smoking “is not a criminal office and/or banned in Malaysia” except for in certain legal provisions which make smoking in certain areas an offence.
“Smoking is an activity that is valid in law and guaranteed by the Federal Constitution,” he claimed.
Haniff argued that it would be more reasonable if workplace operators could apply for exemption from the smoking ban.
He said the government could then carry out monitoring activities and to ensure compliance by such workplace operators.
In his lawsuit filed at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur late last night, Haniff is seeking five court orders.
Haniff seeks to challenge the health minister’s order, issued on September 30, 2024, which bans smoking in all workplace buildings starting October 1, 2024.
He is asking the court to exclude his law firm from the smoking ban and to declare the restriction unconstitutional, arguing that it unfairly discriminates against smokers.
“I believe that with the implementation of workplaces as smoking ban areas on all personal workplace premises in Malaysia, these premises will become exclusive areas for Malaysians who do not smoke, while smokers like me will be sidelined and/or discriminated constructively from using and enjoying our personal workplaces,” he claimed.
While waiting for the court’s decision, Haniff has also requested that the court temporarily suspend the smoking ban at his law firm.
As Haniff's lawsuit against the Malaysian government and health minister was filed through a judicial review application, he will first have to get the court's leave or permission for his court case to be heard and decided on.
