Nine bills on hold with the opposition boycott of parliament

Majority Leader, Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik has said that the work of nine bills at the parliament are on hold due to the boycott of the parliament by the MPs of the opposition coalition. 

Before the year's session began, Attorney General, Mohamed Anil, had said that the government will be sending a number of amendments to the penal code.

At a press conference held at the PPM head office to address the issued at the parliament, MP Nihan responded to a question saying that there are nine bills, submitted by the government, pending at the parliament. 

Nihan said that the primary reason for bills at the parliament to be in stock is the opposition MPs not entering the parliament floor and that has been preventing the constitutional obligation to have 43 MPs on the parliament floor to pass a bill directly related to the public. 

MP Nihan said that the opposition MPs are signing in for committees and collecting paychecks but spend the time on the parliament grounds. Nihan raised the question if the opposition MPs are fulfilling the duties they were elected to fulfill. 

He said that the parliament will not pass a bill outside the constitution and so their current focus is the bills that can be passed at this time. 

Opposition MPs have previously said that the reason they are not attending the parliament is because the parliament would not allow the 12 MPs that the Elections Commission have declared that have lost their parliamentary seats for crossing the aisle. And the imprisoned MPs not being allowed at the parliament is also a reason for not attending, according to opposition MPs.