Home Minister will receive 30 minutes to deliver response to no-confidence motion

Parliament’s General Purpose Committee has voted in favor of providing Home Minister Imran Abdulla with 30 minutes to deliver his response to the no-confidence motion submitted against his by the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People’s National Congress (PNC).

The opposition coalition submitted the no-confidence motion, signed by 11 parliamentarians, in October.

At the parliamentary sitting on Monday morning, Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed said the General Purpose Committee has made the decision to allocate two hours for the debate on the no-confidence motion, during which Imran will receive 10 minutes of response time at the beginning of the debate, the middle, and the end.

However, the motion has yet to be set in the agenda.

“I will set the motion in the agenda as soon as the budget debate is done,” said Nasheed.

The debate of the proposed state budget of MVR 34.79 billion began at the Parliament this Monday. The General Purpose Committee has decided on 15 minutes of debate time for each parliamentarian.

Speaking to press after submitting the no-confidence motion against Imran back in October, PPM deputy leader and Naifaru MP Ahmed Shiyam said the opposition submitted the motion in response to his remarks during a radio show trivializing the sexual assault of a woman that took place on a safari boat off suburban Hulhumale’ in June, and because he provided false information to the Parliament.

“Imran implied that it never happened. That’s how he talked. He trivialized sexual violence. We consider this as highly uncivilized remarks by an official in a position of responsibility in the state,” said Shiyam, regarding Imran’s remarks during the radio show.

Shiyam alleged the remarks were designed to deliberately impede the investigation into the case.

PPM and PNC have nine parliamentarians between them. And the two additional votes for the no-confidence motion came from independent parliamentarians Vilimale’ MP Ahmed Usham and Thulusdhoo MP Ibrahim Naseem.