Minister: Fisheries Bill doesn’t belong to a specific political party

Fisheries Minister Aishath Zaha Waheed says the Fisheries Bill submitted to the Parliament on behalf of the Maldivian administration does not belong to any one specific political ideology or party.

The comment comes after ruling MDP parliamentarian, the Central Mafannu MP Ibrahim Rasheed (Bonde), during the Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee meeting on Saturday, declared that the Fisheries Bill was based on the ideologies of Maldives Reform Movement (MRM), and that the evaluation of the bill was therefore very challenging and taking a lot of time.

Fisheries Minister Zaha was questioned regarding Bonde’s comment at the press conference held at the Fisheries Ministry this Sunday.

In response, Zaha said that the Fisheries Bill had been in the works as far back as 2014. She said that the previous draft of the Fisheries Bill was rejected by the 18th parliamentary assembly because it lacked detail.

“This bill has now been redrafted as a framework law. The basis of this bill is to make the fisheries industry sustainable so that it’s benefits are reaped by future Maldivian generations based on policies for sustainable fisheries, precautionary approaches, and environment-friendly policies,” said Zaha.

She said that the bill was submitted to the Parliament after consultations with industry experts, and as a legislature by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on behalf of the State.

“This bill doesn’t belong to a specific political ideology or party. Though I was nominated to the Cabinet as a representative of MRM, this bill was drafted with consultation from the professionals at this ministry, international experts, and stakeholders from different industries,” said Zaha, a member of government coalition partner MRM.

The Economic Affairs Committee, on Saturday, met with fisheries industry stakeholders for their input on the bill.

At the meeting, Bonde said that the Parliament discussed five fisheries resolutions prior to the submission of the Fisheries Bill which had been based on MDP’s Agenda 19 legislative agenda.

“But this bill was redrafted based on MRM ideology. As you are well aware, this is a coalition government. That some of the government ministries belong to coalition parties. What we have here now is a bill by MRM. This is why this is posing such a challenge, why it is taking such a long time to evaluate this bill,” said Bonde.

At the press conference this Sunday, the Fisheries Ministry said the five fisheries resolutions passed by the Parliament in July was incorporated into the Fisheries Bill.

The Fisheries Bill was submitted to the Parliament on behalf of the government by Ihavandhoo MP Mohamed Shifau. The bill was accepted with the unanimous consensus of 72 parliamentarians, and is currently under evaluation by the Economic Affairs Committee.