Parliamentary national security services committee has scheduled a sit-down to revise its original decision to sign off on extending the state of emergency by another 30 days.
The committee had on Monday approved to extend the state of emergency by another 30 days but removed three of the constitutional rights originally suspended by president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
However, according to sources, the government now wants to revise the committee's decision which can only be seen as a new tactic to delay the vote on the state of emergency extension.
The committee on Monday had voted in favour of extending emergency state but proposed to restore Articles 100, 101 and 228.
Article 100 deals with the removal of the president or the vice president from office, while Article 101 stipulates censure motions against cabinet ministers. Article 228 deals with the removal of the prosecutor general.
The ruling party has been struggling to meet the constitutionally mandated number of lawmakers to go for a vote.
According to Article 87 (b) "Despite the provisions of Article 86 of this Constitution, voting on any matter requiring compliance by citizens shall only be undertaken when more than half of the total membership of the People’s Majlis are present at the sitting at which the matter is voted upon."
The extraordinary sitting on Monday saw only 39 lawmakers in attendance as opposed to the minimum 43.
Opposition meanwhile has claimed that the government was attempting to sway some united opposition lawmakers into attending the sitting.
Parliament secretariat has remained in the dark over the second extraordinary sitting which was scheduled for late Monday which was subsequently cancelled.
Ahead of Monday's special sitting, Maldives top court delivered a major blow to opposition hopes of revoking the state of emergency after it late Sunday ordered the relevant institutions to hold off on the reinstatement of a dozen opposition lawmakers.
Hours after the stay order, parliament secretariat had revoked the invitations sent out to the dozen opposition lawmakers for the special sitting.
The court had also annulled its anti-defection ruling and ordered the country's electoral watchdog to re-instate the dozen rebel government lawmakers disqualified over the ruling. The Supreme Court said the anti-defection ruling was issued as a temporary solution to the constitutional dispute case filed by the state but insisted that the relevant authorities have failed to bring to effect an anti-defection law specified in the ruling.
The reinstatement of the 12 lawmakers disqualified by the country's elections commission would mean that the united opposition would now have parliament majority which has the power to revoke or extend the state of emergency.
President Yameen has used the rights suspended under emergency state to crackdown hard on the opposition as police have made a series of high profile arrests including Gayoom, three lawmakers, chief justice Abdulla Saeed, top court judge Ali Hameed and the chief judicial administrator.
Less than a day after the arrest of the two judges, the remaining three judges rescinded its ruling to release the political leaders referring to the concerns raised by president Yameen in the letters he had sent to the chief justice hours before state of emergency was declared.
The top court had not rescinded the part of the order which quashed its anti-defection ruling ordering the country's electoral watchdog to re-instate the dozen government lawmakers disqualified over the ruling which the government had not even contested.
However, the Supreme Court late Sunday revealed that the country's Attorney General has now filed a constitutional dispute seeking to annul the remaining part of the February 1 order which had been signed by the full top court bench.
The remaining three judge bench has asked the parliament along with the elections commission to hold off on reinstating the dozen lawmakers until it decides on the case.
The latest of a series of more than contentious orders by the apex court since the arrest of the two judges would come as a major blow to opposition hopes of revoking the state of emergency which according to government sources president Yameen would seek to extend.
Police have accused Gayoom of bribing the two top court judges to issue the order in a bid to overthrow the government.
