Ali Waheed: Judges can only work justly when political figures are excluded from JSC

Former Tourism Minister Ali Waheed had stated that judges will only be able to exercise their duties justly when political figures are excluded from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

Ali Waheed has made this statement via a tweet – while he is under custody at a detention center in the UK for violation of immigration laws. Prior to this – Ali Waheed had also criticized Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem while in detention.

In today’s tweet, Ali Waheed stated that PG Shameem was working to shift the blame regarding court cases that are wrongly concluded due to the state’s negligence – towards the judges. He also added that judges will only be able to exercise their duties justly when all political figures in JSC are removed from their posts.

“PG Shameem is trying to blame every little thing that occurs due to state’s negligence on judges. Judges can only carry out their work justly when political figures are disallowed to remain in JSC,” he had said.

Whist Ali Waheed has made this statement - Mahibadhoo MP Ahmed Thoriq (Tom) has submitted a bill to the Parliament which proposes to amend the existing laws to disallow political figures to be a part of JSC.

The bill stipulates that the appointment of members to the JSC as per the existing laws – has allowed the government to deeply influence cases reviewed by the JSC, as well as their decisions.

In an additional tweet made by Ali Waheed today – he also criticized PG’s failure to address the issue of ‘indefinite’ remand periods, after having stated prior that the issue will be solved.

An amendment was made to the Penal Code last year – to solve the issue of ‘indefinite’ periods of remand for those who are jailed pending the outcome of the trial. In this regard, an additional subsection was added to Article 60 of the Penal Code – which states that the remand period of those who are jailed pending outcome of trial must be reviewed every 30 days.

A report submitted by PG to the Parliament in December last year stated that the intended result of the new addition to the Penal Code has been achieved –adding that a significant improvement to the issue will be witnessed in the period of a year or so.