Parliament picks Husnee Mubarik to replace Riza at JSC

The Parliament on Monday voted in favor of appointing Manadhoo MP Husnee Mubarik as the representative from the legislative assembly at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

The vote comes a day after Guraidhoo MP Hussain Riza Adam resigned from his post and president and member of the JSC.

On Monday, the Parliament opened nominations for a lawmaker to replace Riza at the JSC.

Husnee Mubarik, who chairs the Parliament’s Judiciary Committee, was the only candidate nominated for the role.

The Parliament voted to appoint him to the JSC with a unanimous vote of 58.

He is set to replace Riza, who was appointed as the president of the judicial watchdog on June 12, 2024.

While Riza did not provide a reason for his decision to leave JSC, it came mere days High Court Judge Mohamed Niyaz resigned form his position as vice president of the commission. He was quickly replaced as the commission’s vice president on Thursday by Yazmeedh Mohamed, a presidential appointee.

With Riza now gone, Yazmeedh is currently the head of the JSC.

The shakeup within the JSC comes with the commission accused of making politically-motivated decisions in recent months.

This includes the February decision by the JSC to suspend three Supreme Court justices while they heard a case challenging the controversial move by the ruling People's National Congress (PNC) to write anti-defection clauses into the Maldivian constitution. One of the justices – Husnu Al Suood - had resigned in protest of the JSC’s decision, while the commission later opened misconduct cases against Dr. Azmiralda Zahir and Mahaz Ali Zahir, accusing them of conspiring to influence the Criminal Court. Azmiralda and Mahaz - both of whom claim that the allegations against them are baseless and that the investigations by the JSC were tainted by the denial of due process to them - were dismissed by the Parliament in May.

The JSC faced more criticism in July, when it recommended senior PNC activist Mohamed Shaheed for appointment as a judge at the High Court, picking him above candidates with better education and experience, including sitting judges. Shaheed had withdrawn his candidacy in August following backlash.

In a meeting at the Parliament’s Judiciary Committee earlier in October, Riza described the JSC as “a powerless power”.