Parliamentary Committee on National Security Services has approved the bills to provide official residences to the chief justice and the parliament speaker.
The separate government-proposed bills dictate that the state is required to provide employees and cover the expenses of the residences. The bills also dictate the residences should allow the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) to provide the required security clearance. The Secretariat of the Parliament is tasked with hiring employees for the official residence of the speaker and the Supreme Court is tasked with hiring employees for the official residence of the chief justice, state the bill.
Currently, the state only provides official residences for the president and vice-president, and the speaker and the chief justice reside in their own homes.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih instructed the Attorney General's to amend the existing laws to provide official residences to the speaker and the chief justice, following the terrorist attack against Speaker Mohamed Nasheed. He was severely injured after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), attached to a parked motorcycle, was triggered near his residence on May 6.
The security services had filed a request before the attack, to ban parking in the alley leading to the speaker's private residence, since his official car is unable to enter the alley. Male' City Council has since banned parking near the speaker's private residence.