MDP seeks emergency sitting over gov office block blaze

The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said on Monday that it intends to request for an urgent extraordinary sitting of the Parliament over the massive fire burned down a block of government buildings in Male’ City last week.

The fire broke out at a block of government buildings located in the Ameenee Magu of Male’ City at around 06:00 am on Thursday. The two buildings housed the Housing Ministry, Infrastructure Ministry, Environment Ministry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and two sections of the Male’ City Council – including the Vital Registration Department.

In a press briefing on Monday morning, MDP officials levied allegations of “gross negligence” against the government over its handling of the fire.

Ibrahim Nazil, the leader of MDP’s parliamentary group, told reporters that the party’s lawmakers had been unable to raise the fire incident with the Parliament as it had gone into recess the same day.

Nazil, the parliamentary representative for South Hithadhoo constituency, said he plans on sending a letter to Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla seeking an extraordinary sitting.

“We are going to ask the Parliament for an emergency sitting. We will send a letter to the Speaker sometime today. We are saying this because the Parliament coincidentally suddenly went into recess on Thursday though the session was extended to [December] 15. We did not get a chance to do any work regarding this incident,” he said.

Nazil said the party’s PG will also request an inquiry by the Parliament’s Security Services Committee.

Parliament’s standing orders require the endorsement of one-third of the Parliament’s members to hold an extraordinary sitting. This means the MDP needs the support of at least 31 lawmakers – a difficult task for the party, which holds just 12 out of 93 seats in the Parliament.

The massive fire led to fears over loss of important documents, including those related to housing.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Infrastructure Minister Dr. Abdulla Muthalib said the fire did not result in the loss of any housing-related data, and that all such information is safely stored in the cloud.

The fire had broken out just ahead of work hours, and did not result in any injuries.

However, it burned two government buildings beyond use, and also affected nearby buildings, with at least 27 people evacuated from neighboring homes.

The cause of the fire remains unclear.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Commissioner of Police Ali Shujau said that the police are collecting forensic evidence from the scene, and are also questioning eye witnesses and analyzing footage from the CCTV cameras in the area.

He also said that a team of foreign experts will join the investigation soon.

Workers from the Public Works Department of the Local Government Ministry are demolishing and clearing rubble from the site.