Ameer informs he will not attend tomorrow’s sitting on budget over ailment

Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer has informed he will not be attending Monday morning’s parliamentary sitting to present the budget over an ailment.

Two parliamentary sittings have been scheduled for tomorrow. The morning sitting’s agenda includes the presentation of the proposed supplementary budget for the remainder of the year and the proposed state budget for next year.

Ameer, in a letter to Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, said he will be unable to attend the sitting scheduled for 9:00am tomorrow morning, citing health constraints. Ameer has confirmed the same to Sun.

The budget was tabled for tomorrow’s sitting at the request of Nasheed.

The matter has been tabled previously as well, however, Ameer, following the counsel of the attorney general, decided against attending the sitting as no concrete decision had been made regarding the no-confidence motion against Nasheed.

As per the Public Finance Act, the Finance Minister must submit an estimated state budget for the coming year before November 1^st.

Another sitting of the parliament is also scheduled for 11:00pm tomorrow with Nasheed’s no-confidence motion on agenda.

Nasheed’s motion had been slated for Sunday’s sitting. Vilufushi MP Hassan Afeef, Nasheed’s fellow Democrats member, presided over the sitting after Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla called in sick. He rejected the motion, citing it did not fit the standards for a motion as argued by members of the Democrats after calling in points of order.

Afeef, instructing MDP lawmakers who submitted the motion to resubmit the motion with the necessary changes, abruptly concluded the sitting.

Nevertheless, the parliament secretariate scheduled an additional sitting for the afternoon, with the motion on agenda.

Eva, who had called in sick for the morning’s sitting. attended the sitting held in the afternoon.

However, she refused to proceed with the motion citing Afeef, who presided over the morning sitting, had rejected the motion, and concluded the sitting.