News
Speaker accused of being notorious for suspending Standing Orders
Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella last Wednesday accused Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena of being notorious for suspending Standing Orders of the House.He said so when the Opposition MPs opposed taking up the new Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill for debate in Parliament without going through the relevant consultative committee stages.
Kiriella said that the bill has to go to either the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) or an advisory committee prior to being taken up in parliament.
“This we have agreed at party leaders’ meeting that every bill before their taking up for debate should go through these consultative committees and detailed reports and their data discussed at those committee meetings should be made available to the MPs. How could the MPs debate without relevant data?” Kiriella queried from the Speaker and said that the latter was known for suspending the Standing Orders to run the House.
“You have not given the COPF chairman post due to the Opposition for two years. If we had that post we would have easily predicted and prevented the present economic crisis. Had we got the chairmanship of COPF in 2020, we could have told the country of the imminent collapse of the economy. You suspended the Standing Orders and prevented us from getting the COPF chairman post for an opposition MP,” Kiriella told the Speaker.
Speaker Abeywardena: What is the point of now talking about that? There is no use of talking of something that would have happened if something else happened early. We must move ahead without wasting the time for such talks. There has been a mistake here.
Leader of the House Education Minister Susil Premajayantha: When a bill is submitted to the House anyone with any problem could go before the Supreme Court. Now the Supreme Court has given its determination. As per the normal procedure, the bill should have been gone before the COPF. But party leaders met yesterday to take this bill for debate. The COPF should have taken the bill for its scrutiny this morning. The COPF can do that now and we can take the debate after that.
Speaker Abeywardena asked COPF chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva whether he could hold a meeting yesterday itself and then the bill could be taken up for debate at 4.30 pm on the same day.
Dr. De Silva said that the time was not sufficient to do the committee’s work. “We have not discussed this bill in the committee. We need time to see the content of this Bill.”
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said that the COPF is not a rubber stamp of government businesses.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe who is also the Minister of Finance said that he did not send the bill to the advisory committee. “You have two choices. You can take up the bill for the debate today or on Saturday. The COPF chairman wanted to discuss it. I told my secretary to furnish the COPF with necessary information, and advised the COPF to be liable to any leaks of sensitive information,” the President, adding that the bill has to be passed by this Sunday.
The official appointment letters for the members of the newly established “Cricket Transformation Committee” (CTC) were handed over on Monday (04) by the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Sunil Kumara Gamage.
The following members received their letters of appointment at the Ministry premises:
Sidath Wettimuny
Thushira Radella
Prakash Schaffter
Ms. Avanthi Colombage
The Ministry also noted that veteran cricketers Roshan Mahanama and Kumar Sangakkara, who are key members of the committee, are currently overseas. Their official appointments will be formalised immediately upon their arrival in Sri Lanka.
The Cricket Transformation Committee has been mandated to oversee the administration and drive structural reforms within Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in accordance with the powers vested in the Minister under the Sports Act No. 25 of 1973.
Three prison guards attached to the Welikada Prison have been arrested by Borella Police following the death of an inmate on Monday (04).
‘Bar Association must reveal its stand’
Civil society group ‘Free Lawyers’ has requested Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena to probe whether political pressure was brought on a Magistrate, or a High Court Judge, in respect of an ongoing high profile case.
Speaking to The Island on behalf of ‘Free Lawyers,’ Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon said that they felt the urgent need to seek the CJ’s intervention, following the May Day declaration by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake that the verdict of a case that was heard on 30 April would be given on 25 May. Tennakoon said that addressing the NPP’s main May Day rally at Maharagama, the President asked the people to be ready to celebrate that verdict. The President couldn’t have said so if he hadn’t been aware of the impending verdict, Tennakoon said, while emphasising the responsibility on the part of the Bar Association to state its position on the issue.
‘Free Lawyers’ recently captured pubic attention following its exposure of the theft of USD 2.5 mn from the Treasury.
Responding to a query, Tennakoon said that on behalf of ‘Free Lawyers,’ Maithri Gunaratne, PC, on Monday, 4 April, wrote to both CJ Surasena and President of the Bar Association Rajeev Amarasuriya.
Alleging that President Dissanayake’s declaration caused immense harm to the independence of the judiciary and raised controversy over the judgement that would be given on 25 May, ‘Free Lawyers’ organisation also asked the CJ to inquire into whether the entire judicial process was under political pressure.
Tennakoon said that they expect the Bar Association to reveal its position on President Dissanayake’s statement. Tennakoon pointed out that during the May Day address, President Dissanayake made reference to 15 cases that were to be taken up during this month, whereas Transport, Highways and Urban Development Minister, as well as Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake, mentioned nearly 10 names of politicians, both sitting and former lawmakers, to be summoned beginning, May.
Tennakoon said that the NPP appeared to have used May Day to counter growing accusations over the Colombo port container controversy, coal scam, Rs 13.2 bn NDB fraud and theft of USD 2.5 mn from the Treasury and USD 625,000 from the Sri Lanka Postal Service.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
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