Day: April 14, 2011

Pension body CEO claims optional payment proposals endanger “social protection”

The CEO of the Pension Administration Office has attacked a proposed amendment to the 2009 Pension Act that would allow for optional payments into the scheme, claiming such a move would set back social protection in the country.

Haveeru today cited CEO Mohamed Hussein Manik as claiming  that although amendments may be needed to pension payments in the country, proposals forwarded by MPs to remove a mandatory seven percent wage payment from all state employees aged between 16 and 65 years would effectively undermine the scheme completely.

The claims were made following a week that has already seen changes made to the Pension Act; an amendment passed on Monday (April 11) served to delay inclusion to the pension scheme for expatriate workers employed within the Maldives by at least three years.

The sitting also saw an additional amendment proposed by minority opposition People’s Alliance (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim to exempt MPs from the pension scheme, however this did not pass after 41 MPs voted against it, while 29 voted in favour and five members abstained.

In considering amendments to allow certain individuals to opt out of the pensions scheme, Manik stressed reservations about optional payments

The pension body CEO also told journalists that he believed considerations to allow the removal of  funds from a pension scheme before an employee’s retirement would endanger the long-term stability of the national payment plan.

According to Haveeru’s report, every state employee is required under the Pension Act to be registered into the payment scheme, with an estimated 37,708 public workers currently contributing.  Some 2,500 private employers have also registered to pay into the pension programme ahead of a deadline scheduled for May 1 this year.

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Badminton Association blocks female champion from training after losing court battle

Maldives’ female badminton champion Neela Ahmed Najeeb has alleged the Badmintion Association is refusing to allow her to train with the national team despite a court order to reinstate her membership.

The 25 year-old athlete, who holds a string of championship medals and has competed in several international competitions, was suspended from playing almost two years ago after clashing with her Indonesian coach, whom she said had attempted to make her run for four hours as punishment for missing a training session – something she was physically unable to do at the time.

“The Association unfairly and quite harshly terminated Neela without establishing adequate cause and without giving Neela the opportunity to defend herself,” Najeeb’s lawyer Mizna Shareef told Minivan News after the case was filed.

After three hearings Shareef claimed “the Badminton Association has stalled the case by appearing in court without having prepared their statements.”

The judgement, she said, would be a landmark case in encouraging more female  players to play sport at a professional level, “without fear of discrimination and unfair treatment.”

Prior to her termination, Najeeb had been selected to travel to Greece in June last year for a youth training session conducted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), however this was scuttled by her dismissal as endorsement from the Association was required.

The Civil Court last month overturned the Association’s termination of Najeeb, ruling that it was against the Association’s own regulations, and ordered her reinstatement within seven days.

The Badminton Association gave her membership for the time she had missed, but she claimed it was now refusing to allow her to train with the national team “as there is no women’s pool.”

“I’ve been training with the guys for eight years and there’s been no other female in the national team. Now they’ve said I can’t start training because there is no women’s pool,” Najeeb said. “The Maldives International Challenge is coming up in June and I need to train in order to participate. But I have to be a man to practice.”

Najeeb said she had sought help from the Ministry of Human Resources and Sports, “but the Ministry said it was not able to help as the decision was up to the association.”

Other players were also facing situations where their athletic careers were being blocked by a lack of support from the Badminton Association, Najeeb said.

“There are players who have sponsors but are losing opportunities to compete outside the country because they are not receiving support from the association.”

A former female badminton player who played the sport for 25 years prior to suffering a ligament injury told Minivan News that the Badminton Association was obligated to provide female players a chance to play “even if there is only one of them.”

“If there are not enough female players for a pool they still have to be given a chance to play,” she claimed, adding that males and females had trained together in the Maldives for a long time.

President of the Badminton Association Ali Ameer said the association had followed the court order to the letter, “and has no further comment.”

Minister of Human Resources and Sports Hassan Latheef told Minivan News that it would be inappropriate for him to comment until he had informed himself on the case, but said he would do so.

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Hudhufushi lease renewed

The Tourism Ministry has renewed the lease for Hudhufushi in Lhaviyani Atoll despite the resort island’s owner owing more than US$85 million in unpaid rent.

According to a 2009 audit report, Hudhufushi’s leasee Abdul Rauf owed US$57.7 million in unpaid rent to the government going back to 2002, the majority of the amount accumulated fines from years of non-payment.

The lease rent owned by the Hudhufushi resort is one of the government’s largest debtors in the tourism sector, and was noted in both the tourism ministry and trade ministry’s audit reports for 2007.

Under the original 35 year lease agreement signed between Rauf and the government in 2000, the resort was to open on June 30, 2002.

Former Auditor General Ibrahim Naseem, dismissed by parliament last year days after ordering past and present government ministers to submit to an audit of their assets, had recommended repossessing the island and establishing a mechanism to take legal action against tax evasion.

His audit suggested that at least Rf117 million (US$910,000) of the amount was recoverable.

Local media this week reported that the debt had climbed to US$85 million, and that the government had renewed the lease under a new agreement stating that the amount would be paid back starting from the 11th year of the agreement.

In addition, the agreement requires two payments of US$750,000 before June 1 and December 1 of this year, local newspaper Haveeru reported, or it will be terminated.

Cofounder of local environmental NGO Bluepeace, Ali Rilwan, has meanwhile claimed that the island forms a natural bay that is home to rays and baby sharks, and was “a very important ecological site.”

“The development will cause a lot of disturbance – there was a lot of controversy even at the beginning on the process,” he said. “There were no studies before the island was awarded and it has not been subject to an environmental impact assessment.”

Rilwan suggested that in such instances the government should have provision to exchange an island for another, to allow the preservation of ecological sites such as Hudhufushi.

“There are only three islands in the Maldives that are listed as protected, at least on paper,” he said. “Hudhufushi has a mangrove area, which is a carbon sink – these are mentioned in the government’s carbon report. Half the mangroves in the Maldives have been reclaimed in the last 30-40 years.”

“Ecotourism sites such as these are rare in the Maldives and can generate an income as they make for wonderful photographs,” he said.

Minivan News contacted the tourism ministry for comment and was referred to Deputy Minister Ismail Yasir, but he was not responding at time of press.

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Assault victim dies

Ahmed Mirza, 25, who was assaulted last Monday with an iron bars in Villingili after he allegedly made comments concerning a girl, died early this morning in Indira Gandi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

Mirza was declared brain-dead after doctors at the IGMH examined him and was kept on life support according to the family’s wishes.

Yesterday Mirza’s sister said that doctors had said they had no hope that he would survive the severe injuries to his head.

Police arrested five persons in connection with the case.

Mirza was attacked last Monday night while he was sitting in a park in Villingili.

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14 death sentences issued in the past 10 years: Criminal Court

The Criminal Court has said that 14 death sentences have been passed in the last decade, however many of those convicted and given the sentence have been rearrested and brought before judges on different cases.

The court said that a total of 9197 persons had been given sentences for various crimes within the past 10 years – approximately three percent of the Maldives’ population.

2950 persons of the total 9197 convicted were banished, while 798 persons were placed under house arrest and 5435 persons were imprisoned, said the Criminal Court.

However, the court said many of the convicts who are supposed to be serving their time were brought before the judges accused of committing further offenses.

Meanwhile, the parliament has commenced its preliminary debate on the amendment presented by Jumhoory Party (JP) MP Ibrahim Muthalib to the Clemency Act, which requires death penalties to be implemented if the Supreme Court upholds a death sentence issued by a lower court or of the Supreme Court itself issues a death sentence.

If the amendment is passed the President will not have the authority to grant clemency for those who are found guilty of any offense that serves a death penalty.

The amendment was originally presented by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ibrahim Rasheed, who withdrew it claiming that he would resubmit it after bills relating to evidence and penal code were passed.

Parliamentary Group Leader of MDP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik has now presented the Criminal Justice Procedure Bill, which parliament has accepted and is awaiting preliminary debate.

As MPs present bills to try and control rising gang violence, early this morning a 25 year-old victim died in hospital after an assault two days ago that left him in a coma.

Another youth, Ahusan Basheer, 21, was stabbed to death last month on a busy street in Male. Ibrahim Shahum, 20, who was released by the court after being held in pre-trial detention for six months in connection with another murder case, was arrested along with two others. An under-aged girl, who reportedly witnessed the crime, was also arrested and kept in pre-trial detention.

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DRP MPs Ilham, Mahlouf and Gayoom’s lawyer Waheed to face disciplinary committee

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)’s Council has decided to send DRP MPs Ahmed Mahlouf, DRP Deputy leader MP Ilham Ahmed and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s lawyer Mohamed Waheed to the party’s disciplinary committee.

The Council made its decision after accusing Ilham, Mahlouf and Waheed of misleading the public over the work of party’s leader MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and disregarding the party’s interest and attempting to create internal splits in the party.

DRP Deputy leader MP Ilham said that the party’s charter did not allow party’s leader to dismiss anyone who criticises the party leader.

”The charter states that a deputy leader can be dismissed only if a third of the party’s congress votes to dismiss him,” Ilham said. ”There will be internal disputes in political parties, but this is not how to solve it.”

The disciplinary committee may decide to dismiss those Thasmeen wants to be removed from the party because Thasmeen controls the majority in the committee, said Ilham.

”But that would be a void decision,” he added.

Furthermore, Ilham said the case of former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer, who was also dismissed by the Disciplinary Committee, was now in court.

Umar faced the disciplinary committee and was dismissed after he conducted a protest which unauthorised by the party’s leadership. His dismissal over the matter has led to a hostile split in the party between factions loyal to former President Gayoom – the party’s ‘honorary leader’ – and its leader Thasmeen.

”We will respect the decision of the court, I do not believe that the court will rule against the party’s charter,” Ilham said.

Ilham, Waheed and Mahlouf are supporters of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s Z-DRP faction.

Thasmeen did not respond to Minivan News while Mahlouf was unavailable at time of press.

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JSC denies arbitrary dismissal of magistrate, blames affair

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has told the Civil Court it removed the former Chief Magistrate of Thinadhoo in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Ahmed Shareef, from the bench because of a previous conviction for having an affair.

In court for the third time this year facing allegations of unconstitutional behaviour, the JSC defended its decision to remove Shareef from the bench in August 2010 by providing the court with a detailed account of Shareef’s previous conviction dating back over a decade.

According to the records, Shareef was sentenced to two months under house arrest on July 30 2001, for having an affair. Shareef and the other person had been engaged in a “connection of love” prior to the case being brought to court in 1998, the records state.

The Criminal Court, which handled the case, was in possession of a photograph taken in Shareef’s house where the pair were alone on a bed. The sentencing judge said the court had determined the image depicted a sexual offence. Initial documents submitted to the court by the JSC to the labelled the other party in the affair as male, however the JSC has since claimed the party was female and that this was a typo.

As Shareef was a first time offender the judge suspended Shareef’s sentence for a period of three years. Which means, Shareef has argued, he did not fail the moral standards required of a judge by the Constitution as was wrongfully determined by the JSC.

Shareef is also alleging that there were a total of 37 judges, including himself, with previous convictions. The JSC removed only six of them from the bench, meaning that there are still 31 individuals with criminal convictions on the judiciary’s benches across the country.

In the Civil Court yesterday Shareef’s lawyer Ahmed Zaheen Adam said he is seeking from the JSC a list of all the judges currently on the bench who have criminal convictions to their name.

He also wants the JSC to furnish to the court details of the said convictions as well as the manner in which the JSC considered details of the offences prior to making the decision to allow them to remain on the bench.

According to papers filed by Shareef, the convicted offenders on the bench were – or are – involved in offences relating to misconduct, fraud, bribery and other crimes.

Shareef wants the JSC to explain the criteria it used to determine who should go and who should stay on the bench in what was intended to be the biggest clean-up in the history of the judiciary last August, required by the 2008 Constitution.

Shareef is alleging that the JSC did not, in fact, have a standardised and pre-determined methodology for deciding which judges were qualified to stay on the bench.

Similar to the allegations made recently against the JSC by two failed applicants to the High Court bench, Shareef has accused the JSC of allowing personal opinion and interest to influence its decisions regarding the fate of members of the judiciary.

Shareef alleges that the JSC paid scant regard to the Constitution or statutory law in dismissing him.

The Judges Act, he has argued, states that a member of the judiciary will be seen as failing to meet the required ethical and moral standards if they had served a sentence for a criminal offence in the seven years previous to his appointment.

Shareef’s conviction was 11 years old when he was removed from the bench on August 5, 2010, and his sentence had been suspended.

The Judges Act was being debated in the Majlis at the time of Shareef’s removal, and was passed five days later, on 10 August 2010.

The 2008 Constitution created and mandated the JSC with bringing the judiciary in line with its new standards designed to meet the values ascribed to by a functioning democracy within two years of the Constitution coming into affect. The deadline expired on 7 August 2010.

Had the passage of the Act taken less time in the Majlis, the JSC would have been in possession of detailed guidelines on if, how and when a member of the judiciary can be removed from the bench, the court heard.

Shareef alleges the JSC deliberately decided not to wait for the legislation to be passed by the Majlis and, in fact, expedited the dismissals to suit members’ own personal opinions and interests.

“Speaker of the Parliament Abdulla Shahid is a member of the JSC, and so is Dr Afraasheem Ali, another MP. How can the JSC in all honesty tell this court that it was unaware of the contents of the impending legislation?” Shareef’s lawyer Zaheen asked.

“It is a shame if lawmakers do not know the contents of their own laws,” Zaneen said.

The JSC pointed out that the Judges Act post-dates its decision to remove Shareef from the bench and argued that it cannot be expected to rely on legislation that did not exist. Nor can it be expected, it said, to pay heed to impending legislation.

Shareef is asking the court to reinstate him on the bench and to order the JSC to reimburse his “full salary and privileges” from August 2010 till now. He is also claiming to have suffered great emotional and financial distress as a result of the dismissal and is also seeking compensation for psychological damages.

The case will resume at the Civil Court within the next 10 days, on a date yet to be confirmed.

Correction: Documents provided by the JSC to the court mistakenly labelled the other party in the affair for which Magistrate Shareef was convicted as another male. The  party was female and the JSC has since claimed this was a typo. Minivan has corrected the error for this story.

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