AG’s absence at bar council restricts president’s powers, Gasim says

Maamigili MP Gasim Ibrahim has said that the exclusion of the Attorney General in the governing committee of the Bar Council, the parent body of lawyers, is a reduction in the powers of the President.

Gasim said this while speaking on the Legal Profession Amendment Bill, which began debate in Parliament on Monday.

The main thing in the bill is to exclude the Attorney General from the Bar Council committee. The amendment was supported by the ruling PNC members, but Gasim spoke against it.

Gasim said he does not believe that justice can be established by such an amendment.

“I believe that the presence of the Attorney General [on the Bar Council] is important and useful for a President to get updated information,” he said.

Gasim described the amendment as reducing the powers of the President.

He said that a person's good conduct and failure does not depend on what is prescribed in the law. Looking at the way things have happened in the past, he said that if a president wants to interfere, he will do it by all means.

"The way to reform something is not to relinquish all authority. Someone who does not have sincere intentions, sincere intentions cannot do something properly," he said, noting that he hoped President Mohammed Muizzu would work with sincere intentions.

The current Attorney General himself agrees that he should not be included in the Bar Council. Usham believes that the presence of a person in that position on the council prevents the council from working independently.