Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley says for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Ka­mal­ludin Mo­hammed de­serves to be pre­sent­ed with this coun­try's high­est na­tion­al award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T.

Mo­hammed who was a foun­da­tion mem­ber of Row­ley's Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is among four cit­i­zens to be giv­en the award at Queen's Hall, Port of Spain, this evening. The award is al­so to be pre­sent­ed to for­mer At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Karl Hud­son-Phillips and posthu­mous­ly to for­mer Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Dr Wahid Ali and for­mer spir­i­tu­al leader of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha Pun­dit Kr­ish­na Ma­haraj.

Row­ley said Mo­hammed had served T&T "long and mer­i­to­ri­ous­ly" over the past sev­er­al years and tru­ly de­served to be giv­en the coun­try's high­est na­tion­al award. Row­ley said he was hap­py with se­lec­tion of all the re­cip­i­ents of the Or­der of T&T.

Mean­while, Row­ley re­ject­ed re­cent com­ments by Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er that his con­cerns over the ter­mi­na­tion of the act­ing ap­point­ment of for­mer Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice James Philbert was a non-is­sue.

Row­ley said he was not en­gaged in any per­son­al bat­tles with Warn­er, adding that his con­cerns were raised in the na­tion­al in­ter­est.