Chief ruling party lawmaker calls to limit ministerial summons

Majority Leader of Parliament and People's National Congress (PNC) Parliamentary Group Leader Ibrahim Falah on Wednesday urged the Parliament to restrict the summoning process of ministers in Parliament.

Stressing on the curtailment of the scope of the current rules for summoning ministers to the Parliament, Falah made the remarks while speaking at the question-answer section of the members.

Asking for an opportunity to question Minister Rafiu, Falah said he wanted to give advice to the MDP and attacked the members verbally.

“Why are you [MDP members] summoning the most special minister for youth, the minister of sports here every day and asking useless questions about every little thing,” he said.

With that, Falah suggested an amendment he wanted to make to the provision in the rules of procedure to present ministers to parliament.

"I now wish to give an idea to the Speaker. I think it's best to summon a minister to parliament after he fails to send written responses to questions asked by the members of parliament within three days. I think it's a good thing to change when the rules of parliament are amended," Falah said.

The General Committee is currently working on amending the Rules of Procedure. Until that is done, the rules made in the last 19th Parliament are being followed. According to the rule:

There were two main questions moved by Kendhoo MDP MP Mauroof Zakir to Minister Rafiu. They were two questions he asked to get the latest information on some football stadium projects started by the previous government in some islands in his constituency.