Committee asks PPM to enforce decision to remove Faris

Chair of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Disciplinary Committee, Ali Waheed has asked Deputy Secretary of PPM Abdul Aleem to enforce the Committee decision to remove

Dhiggaru MP Ahmed Faris Maumoon from the party.

The request was made in a letter sent on Monday.

Ali Waheed said that Disciplinary Committee had made the decision in compliance with PPM Constitution and party regulation, and attached a copy of the party regulation on disciplinary issued with the letter.

He said that the regulation on disciplinary issues stated that Disciplinary Committee can look into disciplinary issues verbally proposed during a meeting.

He said that the disciplinary complaint against Faris was looked into after it was requested by Leader of PPM Parliament Group – Vilimale MP Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik in a letter he sent to Disciplinary Committee. And after Committee members verbally agreed that it was an issue that should be looked into.

PPM released a statement last week saying that the party office had received no notification from any official body within the party of a disciplinary complaint against Faris. And that Faris was therefore still a member of the party as proper procedure had not been followed, making the decision to remove Faris from PPM void.

Faris himself said that he had received no notification of any disciplinary complaint against him by any official body within PPM, and that what he knew, he learned from the media.

Disciplinary complaint was made against him after he chose to go against a three-line whip issued by PPM Parliamentary Group to vote to pass the amendment to Tourism Act, allowing government authority to lease islands, lagoons and land for tourism without an open-bidding process.

President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom had requested PPM lawmakers to back the bill, while PPM Leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom called the bill detrimental to the future development of the country, and requested PPM lawmakers to vote against the bill.

Faris, who is Maumoon’s son, voted against the bill.