Govt. again challenges disclosure of details of dismissed political staff at HC

The state has filed a case with the High Court on Sunday, challenging the disclosure of 228 political appointees who were dismissed as part of court reduction measures, backtracking an earlier decision by the Attorney General’s Office to publicly disclose the information.

The details of these dismissals, including their identities, the designation they held prior to their dismissal, were initially sought by Afrah Ismail under the Right to Information Act (RTI). Attorney General Ahmed Usham announced that the information would be disclosed after the state had come under scrutiny for challenging the disclosure at High Court.

In spite of this, the information has yet to be disclosed.

A journalist from Sun also submitted a RTI later, seeking the details of the political appointees who were dismissed back then. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICOM), the RTI watchdog authority, ordered the President’s Office to disclose the information, excluding their addresses as it amounts to personal information.

ICOM ordered the information to be disclosed within five days on January 23rd.

However, the state, on Sunday, has filed another High Court case, challenging the disclosure of the information.

In this regard, the state is seeking to overturn ICOM’s decision ordering the disclosure of the details of 228 political appointees who were announced dismissed by the President’s Office’s Chief Spokesperson Heena Waleed.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced his decision to remove 228 political appointees, aligned with the government’s cost reduction measures, on October 15, 2024.

On November 1st,  President’s Office Spokesperson Heena Waleed announced during a press conference that the government had dismissed 248 political staff, which included seven state ministers, 43 deputy ministers, 103 senior political directors, and 69 political directors.

The current government had pledged to cap political appointees at a maximum of 700. However, according to the opposition, the number of political appointees currently would far exceed this figure.

President Muizzu has consistently stated that it is his administration's policy to disclose such information broadly, emphasizing that there will be nothing to hide. However, he has failed to follow through on this promise.