PNC wants to cap emergency motions at Parliament

Lawmakers from the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC), who hold a supermajority at the Parliament, have called for restrictions to be placed on the emergency motions presented at the legislative assembly.

The government lawmakers made the call after South Hithadhoo MP Ibrahim Nazil, a politician from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), submitted an emergency motion on Monday accusing the government of failing to make timely loan disbursements to overseas students.

The motion was dismissed with a majority vote of 59-12.

During the debate held later on a government bill to amend the Copyright Act, some of the PNC lawmakers said the current standard for emergency motions was far too easy.

West Maafannu MP Mohamed Mustafa Ibrahim accused the MDP of wasting the Parliament’s time by submitting emergency motions, despite the important pending work.

“Honorable Speaker, I, too, want things changed so that such useless bills and motions can’t be submitted here. We being everyday tangled up in something that lacks any substance. Something that lacks any principle or basis. I call for some sort of limit to be imposed on the number of emergency motions that can be submitted here in order to avoid this,” he said.

Funadhoo MP Mohamed Mamdhooh also accused the opposition of using emergency motions to waste time and disrupt the Parliament’s work.

Many government lawmakers agreed, calling it a “cowardly” act by MDP.

Nazil responded to the accusations by pointing out that the Parliament only had one item in its agenda for Monday – the interim debate on the copyright bill. He said he finds the decision to reject a motion which highlights an issue of such deep public concern deeply concerning.

Last week, the Parliament rejected an emergency motion submitted by South Galolhu MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem, demanding full disclosure of the number of political appointees and the payroll of state-owned enterprises.

After PNC’s sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections in April, the government said that the Parliament would be a place where lawmakers submit, debate on and find solutions to issues of public concern. The government also said that opposition lawmakers would receive equal opportunities.