Extraordinary Majlis sitting slated for Wednesday, to appoint PG

An extraordinary sitting of the People’s Majlis has been scheduled for Wednesday, for the appointment of a new Prosecutor General.

The deadline to apply for the recently vacated position of PG also expires on Wednesday.

The incumbent administration is working to hold the extraordinary session on Wednesday night.

After former Prosecutor General (PG) Hussain Shameem had already tendered his resignation, the People’s Majlis voted to dismiss him, after debating on the Judiciary Committee report during a sitting held on August 22.

Current main-opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has claimed that the decision to remove Shameem from his position was made with the influence of the main-ruling People’s National Congress (PNC)’s super majority in the parliament.

As such, the process of removing the PG at the parliament has also been subject to massive criticism.

The news of Shameem’s resignation was already covered by local media houses, while the debate was proceeding at the People’s Majlis on August 22. The final vote on the no-confidence motion was held during a sitting that commenced at 9pm on August 22 and Shameem resigned not long after the sitting began.

The no-confidence motion was submitted to the Judiciary Committee with eight points.

The committee summoned Shameem for a closed-door meeting to hear his response to the no-confidence motion. Despite Shameem’s request to livestream the meeting, the committee held it behind closed doors.

Although MDP wanted to clarify the reason for holding the committee meeting behind closed doors, they were not provided an answer.

The opposition party also noted that there was no reason given for keeping the committee meeting secret, even in the committee report submitted to the parliament after making it confidential without a valid reason.

MDP noted that although Shameem requested for the PG's accountability process to be conducted transparently, this was not done.

Further, the President’s Office (PO) had already accepted Shameem’s resignation letter, by the time the People’s Majlis took a vote to dismiss him.

MP for Hanimaadhoo constituency representing the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Abdul Ghafoor Moosa attempted to bring to the notice of deputy speaker while the sitting was proceeding, that Shameem had resigned.

Highlighting that local media houses were reporting that Shameem had resigned, MP Ghafoor noted that it was a systematic issue to go ahead with the sitting without clarifying the matter.

However, Deputy Speaker Nazim, who was chairing the sitting, asserted that it was not a systemic issue.

Nazim said the law was very clear and he left after sending the resignation letter to the president.

However, he noted that the President’s Office had not confirmed the resignation with the parliament.

Despite Nazim having claimed that the parliament was not notified, the President’s Office had confirmed that they received and accepted Shameem’s letter by then.

As such, PO had replied to the email, six minutes past 9pm that night.

This has paved the path for questions to arise over the haste in removing Shameem as PG.