Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC has defended President Irfaan Ali’s decision to move ahead with reconstituting the Integrity and Police Service Commissions earlier this week although Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton seemed intent on further delaying the process and has since threatened legal action.
Nandlall said the President has complied with the Constitutional requirement to consult with the Opposition Leader who he claimed was frustrating the process to the extent that he did not show up to a second meeting with the President on Monday.
In a letter delivered minutes after the scheduled meeting should have started, Norton claimed he was busy and could not attend the meeting.
But even before that meeting, the government had expressed disappointment with the approach adopted by Norton to formal invitations to consult with the President.
According to Nandlall, the Opposition Leader wanted to go on an “ego trip” while Judges, who were waiting for appointments, and senior police ranks and teachers who are up for promotions, were suffering.
With the reappointment of the Police Service Commission, the two-year delay in promoting senior police ranks will now move forward.
The Judicial Service Commission, which deals with the appointment of Judges, has to be reconstituted. Along with the Teaching Service Commission.
Nandlall assured the country that the government will not allow Norton to ridicule the appointment process of the various Service Commissions.
“We cannot wait. Judges have to be appointed, teachers have to be promoted, and Police; important decisions have to be made.
“We cannot allow Mr Norton to ridicule this process and reduce it to one of the ego-centricities that he seems to be engaged in the public domain,” Nandlall stated during his ‘Issues in the News’ commentary on his Facebook page.
Norton has threatened legal action to challenge Tuesday’s appointments of the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the Integrity Commission.
“We have complied with the constitutional narrative in letter and spirit.
“No one will hold our government at ransom and try to bully…and behave in any way that is contumacious and contemptuous either of our government or the important constitutional processes. That will not be tolerated,” the Attorney General contended.
He explained that when police ranks and even teachers are not promoted as they are entitled to, they retire and find themselves receiving a lesser rate of pension.
“When that happens, an injustice, a miscarriage of justice takes place.”
Notwithstanding, the AG assured that every effort will be made to engage Norton in compliance with the Constitution.
