Malé, Maldives – Parliament of Maldives has voted to approve Safa Shareef to be appointed as a member from the public.
While parliament had earlier voted to appoint Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, who was the former parliament member for Henveiru south constituency and also a top member of Maldivian Democratic Party, Safa Shareef has also been seen in the legal team of Former President and current Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed.
Parliament had announced for an additional member from public to be appointed to the board of police after two competent candidates where not selected. On the second round of the announcement, seven people including Safa Shareef had applied.
Following the evaluations of all the applicants by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security Services, Safa Shareef was the only candidate who got more than two thirds of the votes of the committee and was the only name to be sent to parliament floor for voting. She was given approval by the parliament with 34 votes.
Safa Shareef is a founding partner of Hisaan & Safa LLP and has worked extensively in civil litigation. She is also a notable lawyer in the area of human rights in the Maldives and has represented numerous people for wrongful detention.
According to the new Bill, the Police Board is to look into matters of inhumane acts, misusage of power and corruption allegations against the officers in the institution, as well as partake of illegal or unethical activities while being a member of the Maldives Police Service.
The Police Board of Directors will consist of:
- Two members appointed by the President.
- Three merit-based appointments of technical and experience.
- Two appointed from the public after open applications.
The Directors will also be granted the authority to dismiss officers after taking into account of all the accusations on them. The dismissal of all the senior officers above the rank of police superintendent can be decided by the board under the new amendments made to the bill.
The new amendment also states that the officers will retain their positions and continue to provide services, until the board makes a decision on whether to dismiss the officer or not.
