Marrakech – Head of Government Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri defended the dismissal of Madiha Khayr before the House of Councillors on Wednesday, framing the move as “political courage” rather than a sign of early disarray.
Responding to parliamentary groups on the government declaration, she rejected any reading of the episode as confusion at the start of her term. “There was no confusion at the start of the government, and there is no government reshuffle,” she told councillors, describing the removal of the Istiqlal minister as an act of courage.
El Mansouri traced the sequence behind the decision. “This lady had her judicial rehabilitation restored in 2019,” she noted, adding that the suspicions later attached to Khayr were not known when she was appointed.
The picture shifted once documents surfaced. “When it became clear to us, through documents and information, that there were suspicions, it became difficult to leave this lady to manage public funds and the future of Moroccans,” she explained.
She then described ending the appointment. “I took the decision and submitted a request to His Majesty the King, and His Majesty responded to me at the earliest time,” she stated. “This is courage and not confusion.” She warned that her government would tolerate no suspicion while refusing what she called disruption and empty rumors that erode trust in institutions.
The dismissal ranks among the fastest in recent Moroccan history. Khayr was named minister delegate for vocational training and qualification on October 16, among the 32 members of the El Mansouri government, and the King ended her functions on October 18, less than 48 hours later.
A Royal Cabinet communiqué, relayed by MAP, confirmed that King Mohammed VI accepted the head of government’s request under Article 47 of the Constitution. The nearest precedent came in October 2021, when Nabila Rmili left the Health Ministry seven days after her appointment in Aziz Akhannouch’s government, though Rmili herself had requested that departure.
The post had placed Khayr at the center of the new majority. An Istiqlal deputy from Beni Mellal, she was chosen on October 8 to lead the party’s parliamentary group, a role that joining the executive required her to relinquish, along with her seat in the House of Representatives.
She had earlier worked at the National Airports Office (ONDA) before serving as secretary general of the Mohammed VI Academy of Civil Aviation.
Controversy followed almost immediately. A document attributed to her, a medico-legal certificate dated June 12, 2004, circulated on social media and was tied to a 2004 case already reported at the time.
According to an August 2004 report by Le Matin, a 29-year-old woman named Madiha, then employed at an agricultural cooperative in Beni Mellal, was brought before the Fquih Ben Salah Court of First Instance on allegations of forgery, use of forged documents, fraud, and impersonation.
She was accused of using a copy of a doctor’s national identity card, obtained from rental documents held by her father, to open a bank account in the doctor’s name and secure a 25-leaf checkbook. She allegedly issued 19 checks without sufficient funds to jewelers across several Moroccan cities. The report did not establish whether the proceedings ultimately resulted in a conviction.
Istiqlal figures questioned the documents. Khadija Ezzoumi, who heads the Organization of the Istiqlal Woman and sits on the party’s executive committee, wrote on Facebook that the harassment reached Khayr only after her nomination.
While acknowledging she could not confirm whether the 22-year-old papers were authentic, Ezzoumi described a flood of documents that appeared prepared before Khayr entered government to damage her reputation, and urged critics to spare the party’s activists. She later deleted the post.
Government spokesperson Samir Belfkih framed the rapid handling as a matter of responsibility. On a political and institutional assessment shared across the majority, he explained, the government moved to refocus public debate on its program, and El Mansouri submitted the request to end Khayr’s functions under paragraph 4 of Article 47 to clear the way for its parliamentary investiture.
The case reopened the question of how parties vet the names they propose for office. The affair also gained a further dimension. According to converging reports, Istiqlal’s leadership formally asked Khayr to resign from the House of Representatives, even though her removal from government, in principle, let her keep her parliamentary seat.
She had won that seat decisively in the September 23 legislative elections, taking more than 21,000 votes in her constituency, before being replaced as head of the party’s parliamentary group by Rahal Mekkaoui. At this stage, it remains unclear whether she has complied with the request.
