Nasheed: Home Ministry’s responsibility under the new Police Service Act is to make policies

Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed has stated that the responsibility of the Home Ministry under the new Police Service Act is to make policies.

The President’s Office has informed Home Ministry that Maldives Police Service has been removed from their oversight from the date on which the new Police Service Act had come to effect.

Following this, in today’s parliamentary session, PNC member and Maduvvari MP Adam Shareef Umar criticized this decision – describing it to have been extremely irresponsible to remove Maldives Police Services from Home Ministry’s oversight.

Responding to this – Speaker Nasheed who was presiding over the session said that although Article 242 of the Maldivian Constitution states that each security service will be under the oversight of a Minister – the newly enacted Police Service Act has amended this.

“The respected members amended the law – which now stipulates that a Minister should be assigned to be answerable to the President and the People’s Majilis regarding the operations of Maldives Police Service” he had said.

He further stated that the Minister’s responsibilities are clearly stipulated in the amended law.

“When these details are reviewed – it will be clear that the responsibility of that Minister is to formulate policies. This is the change I believe to have made with the new Police Service Act, if any,” he added.

The President’s Office informed Home Ministry that Maldives Police Service has been removed from their oversight from the date on which the new Police Service Act had come to effect via a letter sent on October 14. A copy of this letter sent to Home Minister Imran Abdulla signed by the President’s Office’s Chief of Staff Ali Zahir was leaked yesterday.

The newly enacted Maldives Police Service Act came into effect on March 27.