Housing Minister fails to appear at committee, MPs criticize

Housing Minister Dr. Ali Haidar has attracted criticism from the members of parliament’s Petitions Committee after the minister failed to appear at the committee’s Tuesday meeting.

Dr. Haidar was expected to appear before the committee to respond to a petition seeking to void the annulment of the Gedhoruveriya scheme recipients’ list.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had halted, and launched a criminal investigation after claiming discrepancies in the recipients’ list eligible for the 4,000 housing units announced during the first round of Gedhoruveriya scheme.

The commission forwarded a list of recipients found eligible without any issues, to the Housing Ministry later.

The ministry later said that it had begun the process of issuing flats to eligible recipients, after citing that the forms in the list forwarded by ACC, had been collected purely for investigative purposes.

This resulted in many assuming the government was attempting to annul the entire list.

Housing Minister Dr. Haidar’s inability to appear before the petitions committee was notified by the administrative desk after its members had convened for the meeting, which they claimed was a disrespect to the parliament.

Velidhoo MP Mohamed Abbas, who sits in the committee said the committee’s intentions to meet Housing Ministry officials was virtuous.

“And adequate time was provided [for the minister to attend], announcing failure to attend at the eleventh hour is a severely disrespectful act,” he said and argued the opinions of the committee members should be notified to the minister, and urged the minister to submit a written apology.

Committee’s chair, Mohamed Ali highlighted it was Dr. Haidar who initiated the request for the committee’s meeting. The minister had informed he would attend the committee meeting after concluding his cabinet meeting by 11:00hrs on Tuesday morning.

“Due to the circumstances the minister could not attend the committee since the cabinet meeting did not finish on time, but we believe the three members in his team could have still attended,” Mohamed Ali said.

The MP granted an additional chance for the minister and his ministers to attend Wednesday’s committee meeting.

However, the remaining MPs of the PNC-dominated committee argued they should request Minister Haidar’s attendance at more convenient date. The committee’s Vice Chair Aifan and Madaveli MP Mohamed Shameez were among those who concurred to this.

The only opposition MDP member in the committee, Hussain Ziyad, expressed concern about Dr. Haidar’s absence to the meeting.

“We are members of the People’s Majilis, and we are present at the parliament’s committee. And the reason for the minister’s absence as justified by the vice chair appears to be rather politically motivated,” he said.

The committee’s chair however, interrupted the MDP member’s arguments reiterating the minister could not appear owing to his cabinet meeting running longer than expected.

Abbas had supported Ziyad’s arguments at the meeting.

“I request that we will not entertain such behavior of the ministers in the future like we have for the housing minister,” Abbas added.

The voting was called at the committee whether the members agreed on extending the chance for Dr. Haidar and his team to appear before the members at a convenient date, which was unanimously agreed.