E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, JAN 22 -

The first female secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Dhiyana Saeed of the Maldives, has resigned after being dragged into a controversy after allegedly criticising her government’s move to arrest Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed. This is the first time that any Saarc secretary general resigned from their position before the end of tenure.

The decision was circulated in Kathmandu informally on Saturday by a Saarc director representing the Maldives. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also communicated about her decision to step down, which is likely to be announced formally on Monday.

The Maldivian government has yet to decide over her resignation. According to the Saarc Charter, the country has to appoint another secretary general if her resignation is accepted.

If the Maldivian government accepts the resignation, all the eight Saarc member states should endorse it. According to the Saarc Charter, the Council of Ministries of Saarc that comprises foreign ministers of the member states needs to endorse another pick. “Her decision has both surprised and dismayed us,” a Saarc director said. According to the Maldivian media, the former attorney general of the Maldives, Saeed, organising a press conference in Male, had rejected the government’s action of arresting the judge.

Saeed accused the government of ignoring the law and called on the parliament to oppose the move. The government has expressed outrage over Saeed’s televised appearance, arguing that her position demands her political impartiality in the internal affairs of all Saarc nations—including her own, writes the local Minivan News. “She should have resigned and then taken her stand, or brought her concerns to us—or someone like the Attorney General. We are her colleagues. This is at best very dishonourable,” President Mohamed Nasheed’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said while reacting to her statement.

“I am first and foremost a Maldivian citizen. It is my right [to comment] on whatever happens in my country, and I will not give away that right. As a lawyer, I am also a member of the Maldivian bar,” she told Minivan News.

She took the charge as the Saarc secretary general on March 1 last year.

 

Posted on: 2012-01-22 08:41

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