Maintenance of minaret to be assigned to private group

The City Council has said that they have decided to assign the maintenance of the Friday Mosque Minaret in Male’ to a private group.

City Council Member Ibrahim Sujau told Sun that this decision followed a request in this regard by a private group, and that efforts are ongoing to hand over the project to them. He did not mention the name of the company.

“Efforts are under way to hand over the project. We are looking into things such as painting the minaret. We don’t want to politicise the minaret work,” he said.

Sujau did not specify a date for handing over the project, but said that ‘it will be done soon’.

Islamic Minister Dr Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said that the government of former President Mohamed Nasheed had removed the minaret from the Islamic Ministry’s authority during the process of privatisation.

He said that efforts were made by the ministry to reclaim the minaret, and expressed sadness over the present unmaintained state of the minaret.

Vice President of the Maldives Chamber of Commerce Ismail Asif, who previously maintained the minaret, said that they used to renovate and maintain the minaret occasionally, but stopped this work following disagreements regarding who was authorised to maintain the minaret.

The minaret, an historical monument and a tourist attraction, looks unmaintained, with parts of its white surface turning black due to not having been painted for a long time.