Ruling People's National Congress (PNC) MP for Central Hithadhoo Ahmed Azaan, who was removed from the Public Accounts Committee and Committee on National Security Services (241 Committee) for breaking the party's whipline, has been reappointed today to both committees.
The two MPs who earlier replaced Azaan on these committees have now been removed. These are, North Henveiru MP Ahmed Aifan on the Public Accounts Committee and Vilimale' MP Mohamed Ismail on the 241 Committee.
When Azaan was dismissed from these two committees earlier, he was instead placed in the Petition Committee and Privileges and Ethics Committee.
Azaan was dismissed following his abstention from voting, which went against the party's three line whip on the amendment to the Judges Act reducing the number of judges on the Supreme Court bench from seven to five.
Following his removal, Azaan said that he believed it had been orchestrated by 'some powerful individuals' because a corruption case relating to them was up for investigation by the Public Accounts Committee. Azaan said then that the committee was reviewing procurement at SOEs, through which they had found that WAMCO had spent MVR 65 million on renting equipment in the previous year alone.
Azaan said that there was heavy pressure from various sides to drop investigations such as this.
