KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22, 2026 — Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said neither he nor Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Datuk Ismail Lasim was summoned for an audience with Yang di-Pertuan Besar Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir at Istana Negeri Sembilan yesterday.
“I was not. The Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar and I were never commanded to attend an audience. We only knew about it from the media,” he told reporters after officiating the University Research and Innovation Investment Summit 2026 (URIIS 2026) here today.
Zahid said the impasse in Negeri Sembilan should be resolved properly. Questions of legal interpretation and power, he added, cannot rest on legal readings alone.
“In my view, this is not only a matter of legal interpretation. The institutions and the establishment that exist in Negeri Sembilan must also be respected,” he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had an audience with Tuanku Muhriz at Istana Negeri Sembilan in Changkat Persekutuan yesterday evening.
The meeting followed Tuanku Muhriz’s statement two days earlier revoking the appointments of Negeri Sembilan State Executive Council members with immediate effect.
In a statement, Comptroller of the Royal Household of Istana Negeri Sembilan Datuk Azizi Mohamad Ali said the decision was made after a finding that all the executive councillors concerned had breached their oath of office.
Azizi cited Article XXXVIII(5) of the Laws of the Constitution of Negeri Sembilan 1959, which provides that a member of the State Executive Council holds office at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Besar.
Ismail has been reported as saying that any move to dismiss or terminate a state executive councillor without the advice or request of the Menteri Besar is a legal error, unconstitutional and without legal force.
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