A Speaker with no support has no right to influence judiciary: Shahid

Henveyru North Constituency MP Abdullah Shahid has stated that the Parliament Speaker Maseeh’s interference into the judicial justice system, at a time when his no confidence was decided, was a sign of a dictatorship.

Speaking in an interview to RaajjeMV, MP Shahid said what we saw today was due to the courage of Government allied MPs. He said the thoughtless attempts to control the MPs had resulted in the Govenrment losing their majority and becoming a minority.

Shahid said the attempts by Attorney General into Supreme Court processes was an unconstitutional act. As such, he said there were certain rules and procedures in working with Parliamentarians and any attempts to change this must first go through a public vote.

‘They were elected to their positions by a clear vote. Any attempts to remove an elected official, especially by someone such as Attorney General, who was selected to the position, is deeply saddening,’ Shahid said.

He had called on Supreme Court not to support the motion sent in by Supreme Court. Shahid said that any rulings by the Supreme Court must not conflate with the Constitution.

MP Shahid said that while the no confidence motion on Speaker Maseeh had garnered the required number of votes, the actual vote on the 24th of this month, will cement this decision. Therefore, he said while MP Maseeh faced this issue, any attempts by him to change the judicial justice system was not a sign of democracy.

‘Parliament’s clear majority had signed on the no confidence motion on Maseeh and sent it to the Parliament. What’s left is the administrative aspect of this. An amendment brought in prior to this had clearly shown the Speaker has no support or a person capable of controlling the majority of the Parliament. In this case, any attempts by him in his capacity as a member of JSC to impact the judiciary is not a democratic one,’ he said.