Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor revealed yesterday that the government had decided to appoint a retired Judge from Singapore as the Co-Chair of the National Enquiry Commission set up to probe the circumstances surrounding the transfer of power on February 7. Speaking during a press conference held at the President's office, Azima added that in addition to the appointment of a Singaporean Judge, the discussions with the Commonwealth Special Envoy to the Maldives Sir Donald McKinnon had entailed the appointment of a person nominated by former President Mohamed Nasheed to the Commission.
Though government Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza had earlier revealed that the moderator of the All Party Roadmap Talks Ahmed Mujthaba was to be placed as the Co-Chair of the Commission, Haveeru has learned that only discussions had ensued to appoint him or any other person with no direct political affiliations to the Commission to act as the Chair in the absence of Ismail Shafeeu who is the present Chair of the Enquiry Commission.
However, Haveeru further learned that no decision had been reached thus far with regard to the matter.
Azima also said that so far Nasheed had put forth nine names as his representative to the Commission, but none of the nominations were mutually acceptable by the government.
To that end she detailed that Machchangoalhi-north constituency MP Mariya Ahmed Didi, former Housing Minister of the previous administration Mohamed Aslam, former Youth Minister Hassan Latheef, former Education Minister Shifa Mohamed, former member of the Judicial Service Commission Aishath Velezeenee and former board member of the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Ibrahim Saleem had all been suggested by the former President.
The person to be placed in the Commission by Nasheed must be a person who has been away from the political scene for a period of two years, and must also be a person who has not taken a specific stand in relation to the regime change, AG added.
In addition, the candidate must also be of an acceptable education standard, must be unprejudiced and generally acceptable to the public, Azima said detailing the criteria specified by the government.
As the names put forward by Nasheed so far had not been acceptable to the government, the former President had been given two weeks to declare a person within the set criteria and if he failed to do so a State attorney would then be placed in the Commission, Azima detailed.
Azima further explained that the decision to revise the composition of the Enquiry Commission came after the Commonwealth had questioned the independence and impartiality of the Commission which would be generally accepted by the people.
AG said that with the proposed changes to the Commission, the deadline to complete the investigation had been extended till July 31.
The completion of the work of the Commission had earlier been set for the end of this month.
Speaking during the press conference Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed said that the call by the Commonwealth for the revision of the Commission was not believed to be "an attempt to favor or protect the interest of a particular party."
He further expressed confidence that CMAG would endorse the changes brought to the Commission by the government.
In the press conference Gender Minister Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed alleged that the actions of CMAG against the Maldives had been in violation of the mandate of the Group and hence the government had duly forwarded a complaint to the Commonwealth accordingly.
Dhiyana added that the decision to appoint a retired Judge from Singapore was taken as the country was the least corrupt nation in the World's Corruption Index and also to appoint a person who was not "politically influenced."
Tweet Bookmark Print Badge the Comments! Give badges to the best comments you see! You will get four badges a day 1 Comments To have full access to the interactive features available in Haveeru Online please register or sign in. or Post a Comment More Loading comments... Please wait
No comments:
Post a Comment