Pundits have chastised Selangor state legislative assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh for interfering in executive matters by rebuking BN in regard to the state's non-Muslim houses of worship building guidelines controversy.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan said Yeoh should have been impartial.

"As speaker, she should know that she has to be impartial at all times, not just during sitting.

"It is not her job to defend the state government. Her role is to ensure the government is taken to task fairly in the legislative assembly," Wan Saiful told Malaysiakini.