Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed says the parliament must seek a recommendation from the Supreme Court over the no-confidence motion submitted against Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath before taking it any further.
This comes after opposition MPs grew enraged over the AG submitting his response to the motion in written form instead of being physically present to face his possible dismissal.
The absence of the AG at today's session threw the parliament into disarray as the General Purposes committee's recommendations on the motion were only drawn up predicting that the AG would be present at the session.
This led the parliament to halt the session temporarily for the political parties to hold a discussion on how to move forward.
Speaking after the brief recess, Speaker Nasheed said the opposition coalition of PPM and PNC along with MNP believed that the AG must respond to the motion against him in person.
Nasheed went on to recount how other Ministers and former AGs have acted when summoned for a no-confidence motion. Nasheed said that former Foreign Minister Ahmed Shahid appeared in person to offer his own defense when a no-confidence motion was submitted against him and ex-AG Azima Shukoor did not appear before the parliament nor sent a written response in her case.
He further said as the opposition parties viewed that under the Constitution, Ministers and those at such high-level posts must appear before the parliament with documentation to counter any no-confidence motion against them.
Nasheed said that he did not want to dismiss a top official without abiding by the technicalities of the process under his tutelage.
He added that he must now get the supreme court's recommendation on the matter.
The Attorney General's no-confidence motion was submitted to the parliament on the 21st of this month with the signatures of 13 MPs.The opposition is seeking his dimisal for his part in the Chagos dispute.
