The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has presented mortgage bill to the parliament.
The bill was presented to the parliament by MDP MP for Ihavandhoo constituency Ahmed Abdulla, who said the objective of the bill was to regulate and enhance policies of mortgage transaction.
The bill enables the mortgaging a property for more than one loan, he said.
However, opposition MPs claimed that the bill was drafted in a way that would authorise the government to sell mortgaged properties without going through judicial procedure, and that it would be a threat to opposition politicians.
Leader of the opposition Jumhoory Party (JP) ‘Burma’ Gasim Ibrahim called for the bill to be withdrawn and re-drafted.
Gasim claimed that if the bill is passed the way it was drafted, the banks would sell the properties of citizens which would lead many to live in poverty.
In response, MPs who supported the bill said there was no harm caused to those who are paying loans according to the terms, and that the threat of foreclosure was only there for those were not paying loans.
The preliminary debate on the bill was stopped by the Speaker when the time allocated was up, and will be continued in a subsequent sitting of the parliament.
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Ownership and dignity to the ordinary population. Fantastic day for democracy!
Does anybody really believe Gasim is speaking for the people. Because he takes so many loans he wants balance of power in his favour. If he happended to own a bank he would be saying very different things here. We desperately need to remove self-interested business tycoons out of our parliament...
@Hassank on Tue, It is not possible they buy the vote!
Especially this corrector Garoon is deceiver he started his business with blessing of MY LOARD ILABE’. So how can he be honest?
MDP-sponsored commenting aside, the truth is that the danger lies in striking the court's role from the process.
Even a common person does not have the security of having the courts adjudicate in their favor any longer. Mortgaged property might disappear overnight as government displeasure might translate into pressure on the banks (which are regulated by the executive) forcing them to sell off property mortgaged by the persons targeted by the government while persons who are favored by the government run around scot-free without ever having to serve their debts.
I am not making a far-flung argument because I do not approve of this government. This is a proven fact. Look at the situation on loan-recovery prosecution by BML. Only some people are taken to court while others owe BML millions and millions but are not prosecuted for it. It is government intervention which stays BML's hands rather than business considerations.
silly comments by the opposition on this one:
commercial basis for all mortgage laws elsewhere is the same - you put your assets at risk for a commercial purpose (gain), and the lending institutions having powers of foreclosure is a common and logical thing. why would banks lend otherwise?