Speaker Aslam Challenges Supreme Court Ruling, Pushes for Impeachment

The Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Aslam has challenged the interim order of the Supreme Court, saying it cannot direct the Parliament to conduct itself in a particular manner.

The 5th session of the first session of the Parliament of this year was opened by the Speaker of the Parliament, who went on to explain the Supreme Court order on Parliament to stay the implementation of the recent amendments to facilitate the removal of the President and Vice-President, Aslam opened the House for a debate on how to deal with the order.

The Parliament passed an amendment to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament on December 18th last year. As a result of this amendment to the Rules of Procedure, the seats of members who have resigned will not be counted in the quorum of the House. With the passage of the amendment, the opposition MDP has the quorum needed to impeach the President.

Attorney General Ahmed Usham filed a constitutional motion in the Supreme Court on 28th last month seeking to quash all three amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament. The Supreme Court issued an interim order to stay the implementation of the amendments until a decision is taken on the matter.

The reason given by the Supreme Court for the order was that once the amendment was ratified, it cannot be deemed unconstitutional, and if an interim order is not issued before the final judgment is given in the case, there is a possibility of action being taken by the parliament before their decision.

Members who debated the issue in today's session also said that the amendments brought to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament are against the spirit of the Constitution.