A date for for the opening of the 2013 session of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga has yet to be confirmed,  the Acting Chief Clerk of the House Dr Sione Vikilani said today.

A Parliamentary Committee's public consultation on six Bills was to conclude in Vava'u next week. The consultation began in Tongatapu in December last year.

Dr Vikilani remains Acting Chief Clerk until a formal confirmation of the position is expected to be made next week.

Judiciary

Meanwhile, a former Prime Minister Lord Sevele is calling for a judicial review on a report by a parliamentary select committee that investigated the loan funding for the reconstruction of Nuku'alofa.

The Application will be heard in the Nuku'alofa Supreme court on January 23.

Lord Sevele and former Minister of Transport Paul Karalus filed an application for the judicial review of the parliamentary select committee on how a multi-million government loan from China for the reconstruction of Nuku'alofa was spent. They are seeking for the court to quash the report and for a declaration that the committee had breached the natural justice of the plaintiffs.

The Parliamentary committee was chaired by 'Akilisi Pohiva, and included Lord Lasike, Lord Tu'i'afitu, Dr Sitiveni Halapua, the Auditor General, Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa and an independent lawyer, Posesi Bloomfield.

At the same time no decision had been made as to Lord Lasike's fate in parliament. He was a former Speaker who was convicted by Chief Justice Michael Scott on one charge of unlawful possession of ammunitions, but  that decision was later overturned by Tonga's Court of Appeal last year. King Tupou VI had revoked Lord Lasike's seat in parliament following his conviction on the one charge at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court.