PNC ponders parliamentary inquiry into Supreme Court justices

Senior parliamentarians from the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) engaged in discussions on Sunday regarding initiating a parliamentary inquiry into allegations against Supreme Court justices.

The move comes amid allegations by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) that the government is seeking to dismiss some of the members of the top court’s bench to influence a case challenging a contentious amendment to add anti-defection provisions to the Maldivian Constitution.

Sun has been informed that the PNC parliamentary group’s leadership and several other senior parliamentarians held a meeting at the Parliament at 11:15 am Sunday.

The chairs and deputy chairs of parliamentary committees were invited to attend this meeting.

A senior PNC parliamentarian who attended the meeting told Sun that the discussions were led by PNC’s chairman and Parliament speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla and the party’s parliamentary group leader Ibrahim Falah. They asked the other attendees to submit emergency motions and other allegations against the justices to the Parliament.

However, some of the parliamentarians reportedly objected to the suggestion.

“Abdul Raheem himself remarked that the Parliament’s standing orders does not allow for the exertion of influence over an ongoing court case,” said the parliamentarian who spoke to Sun.

Following the difference in opinion among the parliamentarians, Abdul Raheem decided to make a decision after discussing it with President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.

Neither Abdul Raheem nor Falah were immediately available for comment.

Abdul Raheem and President Muizzu met at the President’s Office on Thursday, in the first face-to-face meeting between the top leaders of the PNC since the latter’s son Ibrahim Faisal was sacked from the cabinet in January.

However, the President’s Office disclosed little information regarding the meeting.

Heena Waleed, the chief spokesperson at the President’s Office, told Sun that the two met to discuss key bills the government plans to submit to the Parliament this year. She said the meeting was also attended by Falah.

The possible move to replace the Supreme Court bench comes as the court hears a petition lodged over a constitutional amendment that was submitted, passed and ratified in quick succession on November 20. The controversial amendment added three more circumstances where parliamentarians will lose their seat, including if they are expelled from their political party.

Former Kendhoo MP Ali Hussain, an attorney-at-law, filed a constitutional case with the top court on November 24, arguing that the amendment violates key provisions of the Constitution, as well as the basic structure doctrine.

Ali Hussain’s case is a novel one – marking the first time for a petition to be lodged with the Supreme Court seeking to annul an amendment to the Constitution.

Hearings in the case began on February 17 – nearly three months after the case was filed.

The state filed a motion to have the case tossed out, arguing that the Supreme Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear it. But the bench decided on February 18 to proceed with the case, and gave the state 10 days to build their case.

The case is being heard a full bench led by Chief Justice Ahmed Muthasim Adnan, and joined by Justice Dr. Azmiralda Zahir, Justice Aisha Shujoon Mohamed, Justice Mahaz Ali Zahir, Justice Husnu Al-Suood, Justice Ali Rasheed Hussain, and Justice Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim.

Faisal was dismissed from his role as tourism minister on January 28, for reasons that the President’s Office has not disclose.

In an interview to a local media outlet that day, Abdul Raheem, who had been on vacation in Malaysia at the time, publicly admitted to frayed ties between him and President Muizzu for the first time, commenting that “obviously this wouldn’t have happened if we were on good terms.”

But he made no further public comment regarding the decision after that, but was visibly absent from many of PNC’s events – up until his meeting with President Muizzu last week.