Attorney General Anand Ramlogan says he will not agree to an expedited hearing of the Highway Re-route Movement (HRM)’s appeal over an injunction stopping the construction of the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Pt Fortin Highway. Speaking at a press conference at his St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, office yesterday afternoon, Ramlogan said he would not support the application as he does not think the group and its leader Dr Wayne Kublalsingh deserve an emergency hearing before the Privy Council as their three previous attempts in local courts had all failed. “You have many people who are waiting to have there cases heard and jumping the queue is a matter that has on its own many legal implications that is all I am prepared to say at the moment,” Ramlogan said.
The suggestion for Ramlogan’s office to agree to a joint application for the quick hearing before the British law lords was made by Senior Counsel Martin Daly last week, in an attempt to convince Kublalsingh to end his ongoing second hunger strike. “I notice that Dr Kublalsingh did not want to say if he loses in the Privy Council that he would abide by that court’s judgment,” Ramlogan said.
Ramlogan also criticised the HRM’s current advertising campaign in which it is proposing an alternate route for the highway segment. “None of the issues that Kublalsingh has raised now through an avalanche of advertisements found any favour in the court of law. In fact some of them were not even raised in court,” Ramlogan said.
He also dismissed calls by members of the public and Kublalsingh’s family for the Government to come to a compromise with him due to his worsening health caused by his three weeks of protest action.
“I wonder if he had gotten the injunction, if I had said I was going on a hunger strike because I have to endure three hours of traffic everyday to come into Port-of-Spain, I wonder if he would have say he would discharge the injunction and let the highway be built,” Ramlogan said.