Nasheed proposes Lt Colonel Zubair to represent him in Inquiry Commission

The President’s Office has said that former President Nasheed has proposed MNDF Lt Colonel Zubair Ahmed Manik to be included in the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) formed to investigate the events leading up to the change of government.

Press Secretary of President’s Office Masood Imad said that Lt Colonel Zubair is currently on a scholarship in Malaysia, and is the uncle of Nasheed.

He said that Nasheed is trying to ‘play games’, because his uncle cannot represent him in an unbiased manner in the Commission, and thus the government will not accept this proposal.

Zubair, despite being in Malaysia on 7 February when the government changed, was also holding the post of head of MNDF’s legal department.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had said earlier that the most recent person proposed by Nasheed fulfills the criteria laid out by the government. They did not indicate who the person was.

The government has given Nasheed a deadline until the end of the month to propose his representative to be included in the Commission. Nasheed has proposed several names, all refused by the government because they do not meet the criteria.

The people proposed by Nasheed are Macchangolhi Uthuru MP Mariya Ahmed Didi, former Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam, former Youth Minister Hassan Latheef, former Education Minister Shifa Mohamed, former JSC member Aishath Velizinee, and former Maldives Airports Company Limited member Ibrahim Saleem.

The requirements to be met by the member appointed by Nasheed are that he should not have participated in political activities in the past two years, and that he should not have taken a public stand on how the government changed.