The Parliamentary General Purpose Committee has decided to extend the time given to question cabinet ministers to 30 minutes.
The decision was made after Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed requested the committee to provide a solution to the complaints made by parliamentarians over not being given enough time to question ministers. The committee has unanimously voted to extend the time given for questioning by 10 minutes. However, ministers will be allowed to object to extending the time for questioning to 30 minutes.
Currently, parliamentarians are allowed to question ministers for 20 minutes. The parliamentarian who proposed to question the minister is allowed to ask two questions and other parliamentarians are allowed to question the minister afterward. The ministers will be given a 14 days notice to prepare for questioning either through a submitted statement or after being summoned.