The Legislative Council (LegCo) House Committee Friday approved the forming of a subcommittee to probe into issues related to sale of Lehman Brothers minibonds and other structured investment products by banks in Hong Kong.

The committee also passed the motion to bestow the subcommittee with the powers under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance to summon witnesses to give evidence on oath and seize documents in relation to the hearing.

Twenty-eight lawmakers voted in favor of the motion while three voted against it. Nineteen abstained from voting.

However, the proposal still needs the full LegCo's endorsement. Since this is a lawmaker's motion but not a government motion, the consent of more than half of the lawmakers present from both the geographical and functional constituency lawmakers is needed to carry the motion.

This is a new twist for the formation of the investigative subcommittee as the House Committee had only vetoed a similar proposal by a 22-21 margin a week ago.

Since 1993, the LegCo has formed select committees and authorized its panels to exercise special powers and privileges to investigate important matters on several occasions. But it will be the first time for a subcommittee to use the "trump card" if the LegCo approves the proposal.

Earlier in the day when Financial Secretary John Tsang attended a radio program, he said he hoped legislators would look at the bigger picture.

"We have now seen some light in resolving the Lehman matter and the investors can get back the market value of their investment as soon as possible," he said. "I hope the Honorable Members would look at the bigger picture. If the deal is twisted when there is some light, their claims may then become a distant dream and that is unfair to the investors."

(HK Edition 10/18/2008 page1)