Gian Chand Gandhi

Gian Ghandi (also spelled Gian Gandhi) was a Belizean lawyer. He served as Belize’s Solicitor-General for thirteen years before moving to the Ministry of Economic Development.

Career

Ghandi moved from London to Belize in 1978 to work as a Crown Counsel. He was appointed to the position of SG under Manuel Esquivel’s administration in the mid-1980s. He held this position through four administrations, as power transferred back and forth between Esquivel’s United Democratic Party and the opposing People’s United Party, leading Great Belize Television to dub him “the capital’s ultimate survivor”. He even remained in the SG position following Esquivel’s second fall from power in the 1998 election. However, the political situation in the year after that became less kind to him. In February 1999, the Belize Bar Association requested that the government remove Ghandi from his position as SG, alleging ethics violations. Finally, long-time rival Godfrey Smith ascended to the position of Attorney-General just as Ghandi’s contract was up for renewal, sealing his fate. At first Ghandi appeared to be getting kicked out of the government entirely; he stated that he would step down as SG and return to private practice.

However, just the next day, the government announced in a press release that Ghandi would instead take up a position as legal counsel to the Ministry of Economic Development as well as director-general of the new International Financial Services Commission Ghandi held a variety of government positions after that, including in the Ministry of Immigration. Later he because legal counsel and director in the Ministry of Finance. In 2011, his office was the subject of a burglary. In 2012, he was involved with drafting legislation for the Dean Barrow administration to forgive 800 mortgages of BZ$50,000 or less held by the Belize Social Security Board, totaling BZ$7 million in value.

Ganghi died at the Western Regional Hospital on August 17, 2015.