House Speak­er Wade Mark is ex­pect­ed to rule dur­ing to­day's Low­er House ses­sion on the PNM's bid to have MP Anil Roberts in­ves­ti­gat­ed by Par­lia­ment's Priv­i­leges com­mit­tee. PNM leader Kei­th Row­ley ap­plied last week to have Roberts tak­en be­fore the priv­i­leges team fol­low­ing Roberts' al­le­ga­tion that Row­ley used min­is­te­r­i­al pow­er in 2003 to "over­rule" a Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion de­ci­sion and have it ap­prove con­struc­tion a 15 storey com­plex at Bayshore.

Row­ley de­nies is­su­ing any such di­rec­tive to the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion. Row­ley con­tend­ed that Roberts "had wil­ful­ly and de­lib­er­ate­ly mis­led the House and gross­ly abused free­dom of speech in the House." Roberts, how­ev­er in a sub­se­quent me­dia brief­ing com­ment­ed fur­ther. Mark had said last Fri­day he would rule on the is­sue at the next House ses­sion. (GA)