Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri is merely trying to "save her own skin" in the row over her parliamentary reply on government action against Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali, a law expert says.

"Nancy is trying to save her skin by disowning the statement on Ibrahim Ali, but she forgot she was speaking as a minister, not as an MP or as a private citizen," constitutional law expert Professor Abdul Aziz Bari said today.