Deputy Minister Raqib fired over Thinadhoo's city status lawsuit

Environment Ministry's Deputy Minister Mohamed Raqib has been fired over his recent constitutional case against the government, seeking to revoke Thinadho's status as a city.

This was confirmed by President's Office Spokesperson Heena Waleed. She posted on X, detailing that Raqib was fired by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu over the case.

This comes after the High Court ruled last month that Raqib would not be allowed to represent a client against the state while holding a political post appointed by the President.

The ruling was made after Raqib represented a defendant in a child sexual assault case. However, Raqib has continued to represent clients as defence counsel in other cases as well.

In the constitutional case in subject, Raqib is seeking to revoke the city status of Gaafu Dhaalu Thinadhoo, citing a population below the required threshold of 10,000.

Speaking to Mihaaru News, Raghib said that the council had submitted a falsified list of the population to meet the requirement.

“From my investigation, the list includes people who passed away years ago, duplicate entries with altered ID numbers, and repeated entries with different ID cards. It is an illegal list,” Raghib said.

According to Raghib, a request made under the Right to Information Act to the Department of National Registration (DNR) revealed Thinadhoo's current population to be around 7,000.

He further alleged that city status was granted based on the falsified data and called for an investigation into the actions of the Thinadhoo council and former President Solih for forgery of documents and submitting false information to a government authority and annul Thinadhoo's city status.

Raqib is the former Chief Magistrate of the Kaafu atoll jurisdiction. He resigned from the post in 2019 after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) recommended that he be removed from office. He was later seen working for PPM's legal team after that.