Villufushi MP Hassan Afif has concluded the session of the Parliament to remove President Mohamed Nasheed as the Speaker of the Parliament, citing the motion as unlawful.

Nasheed's no-confidence motion was placed on the agenda for today's sitting following Supreme Court's verdict that if the Deputy Speaker cannot preside over the Parliament session, as per Article 44 of the Parliament, another member can be appointed to preside over the meeting.

Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla did not attend today's session and thus in accordance with the verdict, MP Hassan Afeef was present in the chair.

Shortly after the session began, Democrats' PG leader, MP Ali Azim took up the issue after Speaker Afeef said that the debate on the motion to remove the Speaker was scheduled under Article 82(b) of the Constitution.

He said nasheed's no-confidence motion moved by MDP was in violation of parliamentary rules. Azim said the case was illegal under Sections 61(b) and 204(a) of the Parliament regulations.

"The session can only progress once we decide on whether this is a bill, a motion, an emergency motion, a committee report, or a motion to remove a member as per Article 101 of the Constitution," he said.

Regarding the systemic issue, Afeef said that on the agenda was a resolution to remove Nasheed as speaker under Article 82(b) of the Constitution.

Ali Azim said Article 81 of the Constitution says that parliament will make rules and enforce the rules, and Article 35 of the parliamentary rules defines the nature of the motion to be presented to parliament and the resolution should be presented.

Ali Azim said that while the rules state that there should be an introduction in the resolution submitted to the Parliament, and the motion to remove the Speaker does not meet the definition of the rules.

"Therefore, the resolution cannot be taken up in the Parliament. We can't move a resolution otherwise," he said.

However, MDP members said that it was a resolution submitted in accordance with the constitution.

Meanwhile, Maradhoo MP Ibrahim Shareef said Afeef sat in the chair in violation of the constitution and asked the speaker not to include a person with vested interests in the chair.

"This resolution was submitted is in accordance with the rules. However, allowing someone with a vested interest in the matter is in violation of Article 82 of the Constitution," MP Shareef said.

MNP Vice President and Villimale' MP Ahmed Usham said there was no reason why the no-confidence motion to remove the speaker could not be taken forward as per the rules of the parliament.

He said that the rules of the Parliament speak of resolutions on other issues and the no-confidence motion against the Speaker and Deputy Speaker is against it and hence the two resolutions have to be implemented in two ways.

Following this, MP Hassan Afeef decided the motion cannot progress further during the session.

He said that the Supreme Court's verdict in the case has also changed things from the earlier position that only the Vice President could preside over the no-confidence motion against the Speaker.

Therefore, he said that he had accepted Ali Azim's systemic case and that the resolution submitted by MDP was in violation of the rules of the parliament.