Parliament takes one-week break

Parliament has suspended sessions for the coming week, after just recently coming back from a two-week break earlier this month.

Speaker of the Parliament Abdulla Shahid announced in the parliament’s 9th session of the 3rd sitting yesterday that the parliament will not hold sessions for one week, starting yesterday.

He said the decision was made after discussions with “party leaders and heads”.

“With their advice, I do not intend to hold parliament sessions next week. But if the political parties advice me to hold a session, I will consider it and move forward,” Speaker Shahid said.

Parliament has yet to commence debate on the MVR 16.4 billion budget for 2014 presented by the government yesterday.

Parliament took an “unofficial recess” of two weeks earlier this month from 7 to 21 October, less than one week after its sittings resumed after a recess period of one month.

However, parliament committee meetings will continue.

On the premise that there were no pending bills, parliament held 19 out of 39 session in the second sitting this year, which continued from June to August.

Parliament holds sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of each week.