Gail Alexan­der

PNM leader Kei­th Row­ley did not re­spond to a note sent by the T&T Guardian in Par­lia­ment ob Fri­day ask­ing his view on whether Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj was a li­a­bil­i­ty to the PNM and if the PNM should be in an al­liance with Ma­haraj.

On the same ques­tion, PRO Faris Al-Rawi how­ev­er, said: "The PNM stands open in its di­a­logue with all right-mind­ed in­tel­li­gent cit­i­zens of T&T, Mr Ma­haraj has a proven record of cham­pi­oning democ­ra­cy and seek­ing to pre­serve due process in T&T. That cer­tain­ly is an un­de­ni­able track record which no one can crit­i­cise .

"PNM's as­so­ci­a­tion with the Round­table which was con­vened ini­tial­ly to deal with the at­tack on democ­ra­cy brought about as a re­sult of the Sec­tion 34 is­sue has re­sult­ed in a broad-based na­tion­al front of many promi­nent peo­ple in so­ci­ety in­clud­ing labour lead­ers, farm­ers, civ­il so­ci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives and ad­vis­ers to these groups. Ma­haraj is ad­vis­er to the Sec­tion 34 group. The PNM thas en­joyed the ca­ma­raderie and vigour which all mem­bers of the Round­table have demon­strat­ed in pros­e­cut­ing the de­fence of the Con­sti­tu­tion."

PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford, asked if he as par­ty gen­er­al sec­re­tary would talk about the Ma­haraj as­pect, Ford said: "Nah!"PNM MP Colm Im­bert, Amery Browne, Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald and and sev­er­al oth­er MPs de­clined com­ment on Ma­haraj.