Month: November 2012

Global trade union rubbishes Maldives port operator’s claims on rights abuse resolution

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has rubbished claims by the state-owned Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) that the company has allayed the organisation’s concerns over the alleged infringement of employee rights.

The ITF, a global trade union representing 4.5 million transport workers across 154 countries, said it continued to share concerns raised by the Maldives Ports Workers Union (MPWU) over alleged rights abuses by MPL management.  As a result the ITF has begun calls for international solidarity action by its worldwide members after a perceived failure by the MPL and the government to address the alleged rights issues.

Earlier this year, the MPWU, which represents staff employed at the MPL, accused the state-owned company of violating employee rights over, alleging amongst other concerns, that it had unfairly dismissed four employees due to their political activism.

Disputes between the MPWU and the MPL later escalated to a point where the trade union back in September accused the state corporation of forming a “paper union” to shove aside the alleged violations of employee rights.

MPL has denied all the accusations, claiming that the staff members in question were disciplined on the basis of “disobedience” and “punctuality” in line with national employment regulations.

MPL CEO Mahdi Imad told Minivan News on Wednesday (November 7) that the state-owned company had also responded to the ITF, which it said later “apologised” over having raised the issue without checking facts.

However, the ITF has rubbished the claims, maintaining that it had so far had no reply from the MPL regarding the concerns. The global trade union said therefore it dismissed the state-owned company’s assumption it had “won us over”.

“That’s rubbish. There has been no attempt by MPL and the government to address what’s happening to dockers in the Maldives, and in fact what’s happening in the country at large,” an ITF spokesperson told Minivan News.  The trade union group said it would now be stepping up pressure on the MPL and the Maldives government should negotiations with the MPWU not be forthcoming.

After having sent two letters to President Mohamed Waheed Hassan, the ITF announced Thursday (November 9) that it was now calling on the government to intervene over “union intimidation” or “face embarrassment wrought by widespread international solidarity action”.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said the organisation was calling for a real “dialogue and conciliation process with MPWU” that can lead to a negotiation settlement with the union’s members.

“Members of the union have been fighting off victimisation by the MPL in a campaign to prevent them from participating in union activities; union leaders have also been dismissed,” the ITF has claimed “These actions run counter to the government’s own employment legislation and constitution as well as International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.”

MPWU representatives, alongside a delegation from the national union centre, were said to have held a meeting with President Waheed last Monday (November 5), though the ITF added that the ports union had failed to receive any “adequate assurances”.

“As a result the MPWU, with support from the ITF, has vowed to step up its campaign,” a statement on the trade union’s website read.

President’s Office spokesperson Masood Imad told Minivan News today that as the MPL was a public company, the government “don’t look into issues like this”.

“These companies are totally independent, we appoint a managing director and the CEOs, but it is the board that makes decision,” he added, referring enquiries on the matter to the MPL.

Workplace disruption

Despite the stance being take by the ITF, MPL CEO Mahdi stressed that workers alleging to have been dismissed on political grounds were actually punished for creating “disruption” in the workplace.

He contended that the workers behind the allegations still had the options of taking their cases to the country’s employment tribunal to resolve any grievances that the company would then have to abide by.

Mahdi claimed that workers dismissed under previous MPL management in 2009 and 2010 had under similar circumstances been reinstated under his stewardship, as well as receiving compensation.

“These people who have been disciplined, they know a tribunal would not come out in their favour,” he said.

Mahdi also vehemently denied that he operated the MPL in a politically motivated manner, adding that the company was run in a “very technical” manner that respected due process.

“I will challenge anybody who says we are politically motivated, I believe no one has a bigger right than anyone else,” he added.

Mahdi alleged that one of the dismissed workers who had gone onto make accusations about political motivation had come into his own office and shouted at him, adding that billions of companies allowed the world would discipline such actions by staff of a senior representative.

“This is work disruption, no one is allowed to break work regulations like this. Belittling and scolding me when I’m on the street in public is ok. But here in the work place they must show me respect,” he said. “I can understand that because of the lower education of some of these people that they don’t understand this.”

Mahdi said that in the present time, the entire country had become deeply politicised even seemingly down to a person’s choice of branded bottled water.

However, he rejected accusations the MPL management were politically motivated in their roles.

Mahdi accepted that with the change of government in February, top positions within state owned companies had changed, though this was the nature of political positions under each successive government and would continue to remain so.

“These are not dismissals,” he said.

Madhi said that despite sending several letters to the President’s Office, all concerns raised by the ITF had been resolved and were solely the result of the efforts of a handful of dismissed staff to try and

“There are no issues with ITF, these have been resolved, it is just two guys going to [Minivan News] and you coming to us,” he said.

“Fabricate the truth”

Earlier this year, sacked MPL employee and President of the MPWU, Ibrahim Khaleel, alleged that the MPL was trying to “fabricate the truth” about the violations of worker rights.

In a letter on July 12 to MPL CEO Mahdi Imad, Chairperson of the MPWU Ibrahim Khaleel said: “Although the constitution guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, it is now common within MPL to stop employees from expressing certain political views, and violate the Employment Act by unfairly dismissing employees and transferring employees to different departments without prior warning or explanation of any offence committed.”

Speaking to Minivan News, Khaleel said the company mainly targeted employees who supported the ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

“They send people with cameras to MDP protests to check which MPL employees take part in the protests,” Khaleel said.

In addition to the four employees who have been dismissed at the time, 30 had intially been suspended and 10 have been transferred from their position at the Malé port to Thilafushi Island port, Khaleel claimed.

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Coral reefs begin to recover in the Maldives

Scientists have witnessed a “promising” recovery in the coral reefs around the Maldives, a recent survey has revealed.

The results show that some reefs now have more live coral cover than before the catastrophic El Niño bleaching event in 1998, which killed 95 percent of the country’s reefs – a key attraction for foreign tourists.

The project was set up by international conservation non-profit organisation Biosphere Expeditions. Scientists from the UK-based Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and the Maldives Marine Research Centre (MRC) surveyed areas known to have suffered from heavy bleaching.

The reef check conducted in September showed that many badly damaged reefs have recovered to populations in excess of 60 percent live coral. On one site, the survey team found there was more coral cover now than there was in 1997.

The latest findings follow a severe case of coral bleaching in 2010, when the MRC reported a resurgence of coral bleaching following a prolonged sea temperature rise.

The project found that the isolated, offshore and cleaner waters of the Maldives appeared to offer better conditions for coral recovery – contrasting findings published from the Great Barrier Reef, which noted that coral cover had  reduced by more than 50 percent in the last 27 years.

Lead scientist for the project, MCS Biodiversity Officer Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, said: “Although our surveys aren’t as comprehensive in scale and number as those from the Great Barrier Reef, we have witnessed a promising recovery in the reefs we’ve visited.

“The number of chronic impacts to the reefs of the Maldives are fewer than those to the Great Barrier Reef, and that has probably resulted in this more positive response to the initial bleaching event die-off in the sites we visited in Ari Atoll.”

The focus of this year’s project was to undertake reef check surveys in areas first surveyed before and during the El Niño bleaching in 1998.

Meaning ‘little boy’ in Spanish, El Niño is a phenomenon which damaged more than 95 per cent of the Maldives’ reefs following three months of unusually high seawater temperatures that year.

Even the slightest rise in water temperature can put stress on the coral, causing it to lose its colour and turn white, before eventually dying.

Coral bleaching was named as one of the three main causes of coral death, along with outbreaks of coral-eating starfish and damage from major storms.

Despite the findings, Dr Solandt warned conservationists and stakeholders in the Maldives that they cannot afford to be complacent.

“There is over-fishing of large predatory fish and further ocean warming events on the horizon, and some of the reefs nearer to Male’ appear not to have recovered as extensively as those further afield,” he added.

Founder and Executive Director of Biosphere Expeditions Dr Matthias Hammer said that whatever the current state of the Maldive’s reefs, the future outlook was important.

“Even though the Maldive’s reefs are generally in waters of excellent purity from man-made pollutants and are seldom hit by coral-damaging storms or attacks by coral eating starfish, the consistently high sea temperatures, averaging 29 degrees Celsius, around the Maldives could lead to bleaching once again if temperatures reach over 30 degrees for any length of time,”  he noted.

Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela was not responding at time of press.

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Employees of health corporations transferred to Civil Service

Employees working under the health corporations have been transferred to the civil service from the first of November.

According to local media reports, the Health Ministry informed all health corporations across the country that their employees would be transferred to the Civil Service last week.

However, reports suggested that health corporations have not been yet abolished and the framework of employees in the corporations have not been adjusted to that of the Civil Service.

According officials from health corporations, the new change would mean that wages of employees would be adjusted in accordance with the wages set for the civil servants by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), although a decision on the matter is yet to be made.

The decision to transfer all the employees of health corporations came following discussion in cabinet.

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Government to form institution providing pilgrimage services

The Islamic Ministry has said it will form the “Maldivian People’s Hajj Fund”, an institution that will work to provide affordable pilgrimage services.

In a press conference Islamic Affairs Minister Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said the purpose of the institution was to provide people with the opportunity to go on the hajj, by paying a smaller amount of money.

He also added that work was under way in preparing the documents needed to be presented to the cabinet to discuss the matter.

Shaheem added that he had already discussed about the proposal with President Mohamed Waheed Hassan and Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad.

Shaheem further said that even if a person deposited money to the fund, it would not necessarily mean that he would be granted with a placement from the quota of pilgrimages that the Maldives receives from Saudi Arabia.

According to the Minister, the institution would be formed on the principles of a similar institution set up in Malaysia.

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Broadcasting Commission condemns barring of Raajje TV crew from government press room

The Maldives Broadcasting Commission has condemned an incident on Thursday where a crew from private broadcaster Raajje TV was forced out of a press conference by Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed.

The commission said it has written to both the President’s Office and Islamic Ministry seeking clarification “at the earliest possible opportunity”, following media reports that the station’s crew was forced out from the Velaanage press room on orders from the President’s Office.

“The commission believes that regardless of whomever it is committed by, such acts hinder the fundamental principles of democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, and [the commission] condemns it,” reads the letter from the commission.

“The commission also believes that all state institutions must provide equal opportunity for media in a free and democratic environment.”

Article 28 of the constitution states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of the press, and other means of communication, including the right to espouse, disseminate and publish news, information, views and ideas. No person shall be compelled to disclose the source of any information that is espoused, disseminated or published by that person.”

Moreover, article 29 states, “Everyone has the freedom to acquire and impart knowledge, information and learning.”

The letter from the Broadcasting Commission noted that the President’s Office had previously assured that it was “the government’s policy to continually provide all information that it is legally obliged to provide to all parties”.

The statement was made in a reply to the commission on August 28 after it had written to the President’s Office regarding media reports claiming that the government was refusing to provide information to Raajje TV.

Government Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza was not responding to Minivan News at the time of press.

Riza however told newspaper Haveeru on Thursday that Raajje TV crew had repeatedly breached codes of conduct inside the President’s Office.

The spokesperson said that the President’s Office would not allow to “do as it pleases.”

The local daily reported that during his press conference Islamic Minister Shaheem had asked a President’s Office employee at the press room if the Raajje TV crew had been expelled.

When the staff confirmed that it was done on orders from the President’s Office, Shaheem reportedly told the employee not to refuse entry to any media crew to an Islamic Ministry press conference without his approval.

“The Islamic Ministry does not have any problems with any TV [station] in the country. I am asking because I’m the one who has to answer for this. I just got an SMS asking me why I forced them out. I didn’t. I thought they left because it was our office,” Shaheem reportedly said after his exchange with the President’s Office staff.

Invitations only

Deputy CEO of Raajje TV Abdulla Yamin told Minivan News that Raajje TV has not faced any “obstruction” from the Islamic Ministry.

“But the press room at Velaanage is managed by staff from the President’s Office,” he explained. “When our crew went to the press conference, [the President’s Office staff] said Raajje TV was not invited and told them to get out.”

Media officials from the President’s Office also refused entry to a Raajje TV crew to a press conference later in the day by the Maldives Ports Limited (MPL), Yamin said.

“But MPL senior officials said they would provide us any information and invite us to their press conferences and events,” he said. “So this issue is between Raajje TV and the President’s Office media staff.”

Yamin added that he was told by President’s Advisor on Political Affairs Ahmed Thaufeeq ‘Topy’ that he was unaware of the apparent non-cooperation policy, suggesting a “difference of opinion within the President’s Office concerning Raajje TV.”

Attempts to contact President’s Office Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza were unsuccessful, Yamin said.

In September, Raajje TV sued the President’s Office at the Civil Court for effectively boycotting the station from press conferences and official functions.

Yamin told Minivan News at the time that “the whole issue began with the government’s Media Secretary Masood Imad excluding RaajjeTV in all invitations to media to cover their press events.”

“Initially, Abbas Adil Riza held a different opinion. But then it became a norm for the government to block us from events, even refusing access and turning us away when we took the initiative to find out about events and attempt to cover them with or without invitation.”

The Maldives Journalist Association (MJA) released a statement at the time stating that it would neither encourage nor accept the boycotting of any media outlet by either state institutions or political parties

Raajje TV had also filed a lawsuit against the Maldives Police Service (MPS) at the Civil Court, following their decision to not to cooperate with the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-aligned TV station.

The station had earlier accused police of targeting, assaulting and harrasing its reporters during MDP’s protests.

The lawsuit followed an announcement by the police claiming that the opposition-aligned TV station was broadcasting false and slanderous content about police, which had undermined their credibility and public confidence.

Yamin said today that the cases were ongoing at the Civil Court.

In previous hearings, Yamin said, the government argued that it was within its rights or discretion not to invite certain media to press conferences and events.

“But what we are saying is that it is a constitutional right of media to gather information and we are ready to fight for that right,” he said.

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Speaker Shahid denies asking Nazim to delay vote on secret no-confidence ballots

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Nazim told local media on Sunday that although the amendment to allow secret ballots when taking no confidence votes had been passed in the General Affairs Committee, Speaker Abdulla Shahid had asked to delay placing the vote on the agenda.

However, Shahid has denied having asked for the delay, stating that Nazim had not brought up the matter for discussion. He stated that it was normal to table larger issues for voting after giving ample time to MPs to prepare, and that the same procedure would be followed in this issue.

“As a rule, I have always tabled larger issues in parliament in such a way which gives ample time to members. Otherwise, if such a huge issue is put on agenda suddenly, it is the Parliament Speaker who will get blamed,” Shahid was quoted as saying, adding, “Had the deputy speaker discussed the matter with me, the answer would still be that the members must be given enough time.”

Shahid confirmed that the report of the General Affairs Committee would be sent to the MPs once work resumes on Monday, stating that the voting would then be duly put on agenda.

To be deemed official, amendments to parliament’s regulations and procedures have to be approved through a vote at the parliament floor even though they are passed at committee stage.

No confidence vote on Home Minister

Meanwhile, a no confidence vote against the Minister of Home Affairs Mohamed Jameel Ahmed has been scheduled for next Tuesday.

“It was my understanding that we needed to come to a decision on the matter of secret ballots before the no confidence vote [against Jameel] is taken. But the Speaker who is in Islamabad asked for the vote to be delayed. Thus no decision will be made on the secret ballots before the no confidence vote,” Nazim said.

Shahid, however, said that he sees no reason why the matter of allowing secret ballots needed to be settled before the taking of the no confidence vote against Jameel, stating he saw no relation between the two issues.

“The matter of allowing secret ballots was raised in majlis after I had already scheduled the no confidence vote on Jameel. Now, the issue which was first placed on agenda must be carried forward, shouldn’t it?”

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has also proposed a no confidence vote against President Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

Minivan News tried contacting Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim but he was not responding to calls at the time of press.

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New soft loan scheme to be launched by BML

A new loan scheme is to be introduced by the Bank of Maldives (BML) following its previous soft loan plan, the bank has announced.

BML has previously issued MVR 15,000 (US$970) loans without a mortgage as part of their soft loan scheme, which the bank claimed had proven popular with the public.

The new scheme will be an extension of the existing plan, however BML has not stated its ceiling value or interest rates.

Only BML customers who have had their salaries deposited into their respective accounts continuously for one year will be eligible for the new soft loan scheme.

BML have stated that the new product will not require customers to submit quotations, and that the service is expected to commence soon.

The previous MVR 15,000 small loan scheme will not be ceased with the introduction of the new plan, the bank said.

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Comment: Maldivian faith to Maldivians

This article first appeared on DhivehiSitee. Republished with permission.

Political prostitutes who pose as religious scholars and sell their Islamic learning to the highest bidder have become some of the biggest contributors to the current socio-political and economic turmoil in the Maldives.

Chief among them is Sheikh Imran Abdulla, current president of Adhaalath Party – an organisation which uses the religion of Islam as its chief recruitment and fundraising tool, and proudly exploits people’s faith for political purposes.

Sheikh Imran Abdulla was one of the chief choreographers of the Islamists’ role in the downfall of the Maldivian democracy. On 2 February 2012, he issued an ultimatum to the then President Mohamed Nasheed: resign within five days or be forced out of office.

Nasheed was forced to resign on 7 February.

Yesterday, Sheikh Imran, now a chief mover and shaker in the current ‘Coalition Government’ issued another ultimatum. This time to the government he helped put in place: get out of the 25-year contract with India’s GMR Group for upgrading and running the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport within six days (by 15 November), or else.

He issued the ultimatum at a public rally widely believed to be funded by rich tourism tycoons, currently openly fighting over the country’s airports, and who have vested interests in getting GMR out.

The rally was a colourful affair, aimed chiefly at rousing the masses into a fervour by making the GMR issue into a religious one. The aim, it appears, is to incite enough public discontent to pressure the government into reneging on its agreement with GMR.

Ahead of the rally, held at the Artificial Beach in Male’, leaflets were distributed all over the island, encouraging people to attend the rally in the name of Islam, to save the Maldivian airport from foreign ‘economic invaders’ of ‘other religions’.

Songs were played on loudspeakers attached to pick-up trucks that went round and round the island, stopping at mosques after Friday prayers for maximum effect.

One of the songs has the title—Maldivians’ Prayer: Maldivian airport to Maldivians. Another is called simply Maldivian Airport to Maldivians. The latter raises the volume on nationalism and the former suggests ending the agreement with GMR is a religious duty of Maldivians.

Here’s some of the lyrics from Maldivians’ Prayer:

You get the picture.

The rally was not as big as the Mother of All Rallies, or the so-called Mahaasinthaa, held on 23 December 2011 to ‘Defend Islam’ by removing President Nasheed from office and endorsing his then Vice President Dr Waheed as his replacement.

But there was still a sizeable crowd of hundreds gathered around the nationalistic/religious banners.

Sheikh Imran told them it was their religious duty to deliver the airport from India’s GMR. Men and women (strange this, given that Imran has repeatedly stated that women should stay home and breed instead of joining political rallies) stayed listening to Sheikh Imran and his fellow Islam-sellers long after midnight and in the pouring rain.

Before ending the rally for the night, another ‘scholar’ led a prayer calling on Allah to bring his wrath upon GMR and cause it great destruction.

Such rhetoric not only fools a lot of people into accepting this economic/political issue as a religious matter, it also helps increase the intolerance and xenophobia which have become defining characteristics of the Maldivian society today, thanks mainly to the religion-political-tourism industry complex that now reigns supreme over Maldivian affairs.

Moreover, as former Maldivian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Farah Faizal quickly highlighted, turning the issue into a religious one also has the potential to make life very difficult for the tens of thousands of Maldivian immigrants in India by creating tensions between them and the largely Hindu majority Indian population.

The rising radicalisation of Maldivians has been a cause for concern in India for several years, and it is well-known that a Maldivian was involved in the Mumbai attacks of 2008, as is the fact that the terrorist organisation Lashkar e Taiba has beenoperating and recruiting in the Maldives.

Young disaffected Maldivians are many, and most are highly vulnerable to ideological indoctrination by individuals who propagate extremist ideologies.

Sadly, many do not see beyond ‘The Scholar’ façade behind which these individuals operate. Tens of thousands remain incapable of looking further than the carefully cultivated beards, or the Pashtun garb—no more Islamic or Maldivian than GMR itself.

Hundreds everyday accept these individuals as devout religious scholars and remain blind to how they turn Islamic teachings into a commodity that can be bought and sold to equally unscrupulous businessmen/politicians.

It is these individuals, worked into a frenzy by individuals like Sheikh Imran, who have travelled abroad to kill themselves and others in the name of Islam.

Several government officials were at yesterday’s rally, including the President’s Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza. Riza loudly accused Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives D.M. Mullay—a key figure behind India’s quick acceptance of Dr Waheed’s government as legitimate—of taking bribes to ensure GMR was awarded the Maldives airport contract.

Here’s Dr Waheed’s spokesperson Abbas Riza at the rally:

But, as is now coming to be expected, the government has stayed wholly silent on the rampant exploitation of religion for political purposes, further reinforcing the perception that it is complicit in this phenomenon and condone it as a valid political strategy.

It is still silent, for instance, on the Salafists’ call last week to have Maldivian girls declared women at puberty. A children’s Afternoon with Ali Rameez remains scheduled to go ahead on 15 November as planned, despite the fact that Ali Rameez is the man leading the call to end girl-childhood at puberty.

And, as we shall see on 15 November (also the date of the GMR ultimatum), there will be many parents who would take their children to this pop-singer turned ultra-religious conservative without pausing to think about what they are doing.

These people will represent the thousands of Maldivians who have already bought into the dogma, among others, that it is their religious duty to have their girl-children married off at puberty to men old enough to be their grandfathers.

The official silence over ‘religious scholars’ and their exploitation of Islam to suit various socio-political and economic purposes must end. Such voices must be strongly countered and condemned.

The long term consequences of their actions will not be seen only in the political economy, but in the Maldivian identity itself which has already changed so drastically in the last decade as to be unrecognisable.

From a laid-back island community of moderate and tolerant Muslims whose relationship with God was their personal affair, Maldives has become a highly radical and tense society in which a large percentage of the population is bigoted, intolerant and xenophobic.

Among them will be the few who will join the violent militants.

What is of equally great concern are the tens of thousands of Maldivians who fail to see these political prostitutes for what they are, and willingly give up their own human rights and dignity and deny others theirs in the name of Islam.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Dismissal of Transport Minister “cowardly act”, says JP official

The Jumhore Party (JP) has said that it is “investigating and very closely looking into the abrupt removal of the party’s only cabinet member, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Honourable Dr Ahmed Shamheed.”

In a statement on Thursday night, the government-aligned JP said it would take “necessary action” following an inquiry, expressing “serious concern” with statements in the media by officials from the President’s Office regarding the reasons for Shamheed’s dismissal.

An unnamed JP official alleged to Villa TV (VTV) – owned by JP Leader and MP for Maamigili Gasim Ibrahim – that Dr Shamheed was sacked because of his opposition to the recently concluded sale of a 30 percent stake in the Addu International Airport Company Ltd (AIA) to tourism pioneer ‘Champa’ Hussain Afeef.

JP Leader Gasim Ibrahim had alleged corruption in the deal and claimed the valuation of the 30 percent stake was too low.

The JP senior official meanwhile told VTV that Shamheed was removed to allow Champa Afeef to control the airport project, claiming that the “cowardly” act of sacking the JP minister was intended to divert media and public attention from the Addu airport controversy.

Dr Shamheed was sacked immediately after an agreement was signed to extend the lease of the Maamigili airport – owned by JP Leader Gasim’s Villa Company – for 99 years.

The JP however noted that the decision was unanimously approved by the government’s Economic Committee on November 1. In addition to Shamheed, the Economic Committee consists of Minister of Finance Abdulla Jihad and Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Ahmed Shafeeu, Housing Minister Dr Mohamed Muizzu, Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela and Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb.

Government Spokesperson Abbas Adil  Riza told Minivan News on Thursday that despite Shamheed’s dismissal, the decision to extend the lease had “not yet” been reversed.

Abbas had tweeted that the cabinet seat would be reserved for JP, the third largest party in terms of membership in the ruling coalition.

Meanwhile, in a press conference today, MP Gasim Ibrahim said that he did not believe President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik could have been unaware of the ministerial economic committee’s decision to extend the lease, which was finalised at a meeting at the President’s Office on November 1.

For President Waheed to be unaware of a decision “approved by half the cabinet” was “a joke”, he said.

Gasim said Villa has spent more than MVR 1.4 billion (US$90 million) on developing the airport at Maamigili in addition to more than MVR 500 million spent for the island’s development.

The airport was leased by the government for an annual rent of US$24,000, the Maamigili MP revealed.

Dr Shamheed meanwhile told Sun Online following his dismissal that he believed he was sacked for differences of opinion with the President on a number of issues, including his opposition to the sale of the AIA stake and the agreement with Nexbis to install a border control system.

On November 5, Dr Shamheed tweeted that there was “no justification” for the valuation of an asset worth US$150 million for US$13 million.

He also criticised the sale of the AIA stake as “irresponsible”.

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