The Democrats have begun work to open their haruge in the same location where the current MDP haruge is housed.

The main haruge of MDP was being run on land owned by Shafiyya Zubair in front of Artificial Beach. After the lease had expired, Shafiyya informed MDP to vacate the premises, who had refused to do so and submitted a case to the Civil Court.

However, the court had ruled against MDP, hence Shafiyya had begun to vacate the premises today.

Speaking to the press outside the haruge, Shafiyya revealed that she had asked to vacate the premises by March 30th. However, MDP had then replied to the notice by stating that they wished to stay till April 26th, but since this was not part of the lease agreement, Shafiyya had informed them that it would not be possible.

Shafiyya also revealed that MDP had noted that they wanted to extend their stay due to the cheaper rental price for the place as compared to newer places which were running up to over MVR 200,000 for them, due to which they were unable to find a new place. She highlighted that while she is renting the place for MVR 60,000 since 2018, she had not increased the rental price once.

She further noted that she has now leased the place to a businessman for a higher price starting March 15th. Shafiyya revealed that she has leased the place for business use and will not be given to any political party.

Shafiyya also highlighted that the Planning Ministry had approved a 15 storey building on the land, though investors backed out of the project due to the MDP haruge being run there.

She stated that she will be filing for damages caused due to this.