The hearing of an application by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to expunge certain parts of the supporting affidavit filed by Petaling Jaya Utara Member of Parliament Tony Pua Kiam Wee over a defamation suit in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) issue, has been deferred to Sept 25.

High Court judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera set the new date in chambers in the presence of counsel Choo Shi Jin, representing the prime minister, and counsel Alliff Benjamin Suhaimi, representing Pua.

When met by reporters, Alliff said the court should be hearing the application today but postponed it to Sept 25 as the lead counsel for the prime minister was now on an assignment overseas.

He said the same date was also set to hear Najib's application to expunge several parts of the statement of defence filed by Chan Chee Kong, the owner of Mediarakyat.net portal, and to hear Pua's application to strike out Najib's suit.

Najib, in his personal capacity, filed the defamation suit on March 5, this year and named Pua, 42, and Chan, 51, as the first and second defendants respectively.

In his statement of claim, Najib said that on Nov 13, last year, Pua, as the main speaker at a DAP fund-raising dinner, had made a defamatory remark on 1MDB.

He stated that a recording of the speech was uploaded by Chan himself and/or his agents on YouTube and the Mediarakyat website under what he described was a libellous heading.

Najib, the plaintiff, said the recording of the speech contained words that referred to and related to him, and defamed him while the individual known as the "prime minister" must have referred specifically to him.

He claimed the defamatory words meant, among other things, that he had robbed the people of their money with regard to the 1MDB transactions and as such, he was someone who could not be trusted and not qualified to hold public office.

Najib said the publication of the defamatory words had tarnished his reputation as the recorded speech could be easily and widely accessed throughout the world via the Internet, blogs, forums and websites without any restriction and could be reshared.

He is seeking general and exemplary damages, costs and an injunction to prevent the two defendants or their agents from publishing further the defamatory words against him.