Committee decides not to hold meeting in Maafaru, to go on fact-finding mission instead

Chair of the Parliament Committee on Oversight of the Government Thoddoo MP Ali Waheed has said that the committee will not conduct an official meeting in Noonu Maafaru, and that it will instead make a trip to the island to gather information.

In a press conference held in the parliament building last night, Ali Waheed said that the committee had decided not to hold an official meeting in Noonu Maafaru and that their purpose will be to meet the people of the island and exchange information. The committee is scheduled to leave on the trip today.

“Our committee has now decided that we’ll go on a fact-finding trip to Maafaru. The difference is that we’re not calling it an official committee of the Majlis, but changed it to a fact-finding machine,” said Ali Waheed.

He said that hosting an official parliament committee meeting is expensive and that after discussion, the committee had decided make it a “fact finding” trip alone, in order to minimise expenses.

“It will be expensive to hold a parliament committee meeting in a formal manner. We will need MNDF’s assistance, in terms of security. The island also must fulfil some of the things necessary to hold an official committee meeting. It will be a difficult and expensive thing to do,” said Ali Waheed.

He said that all the members of the committee will take part in today’s trip to Maafaru, including the MP representing Maafaru constituency.

The committee had summoned former Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) Chief Major General (Rtd) Moosa Ali Jaleel to the committee regarding its on-going investigation of the Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI) report.

Speaking of the meeting which was held in secret, Ali Waheed said that Moosa Ali Jaleel spent three hours sharing information with the committee and that the committee received good cooperation from Moosa Ali Jaleel.

The committee had summoned eight people with regard to their investigation of the CoNI report. The people summoned are former Head of Police Intelligence Mohamed Hameed (MC Hameed), former Head of MNDF Intelligence Brigadier General Ahmed Nilam, former Police Commissioner Ahmed Faseeh, former Head of Police Drug Enforcement Department Mohamed Jinaah, former Human Rights Minister FathimathDhiyana Saeed, Brigadier General (Rtd) Ibrahim Didi and Colonel Mohamed Ziyad.