• Controversial BBS chief will head 13-member TF
• Will recommend proposals to prepare draft law to ensure all citizens treated alike before law

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

BBS Leader Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has set up a Presidential Task Force to make proposals to implement the ‘One Country, One Law’ concept and named the controversial Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) leader Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero as its Chairman.

The task force will study the implementation of the concept ‘One Country, One Law’ within Sri Lanka and prepare a draft act for this purpose, a gazette notification issued last night by Presidential Secretary P.B. Jayasundera said.

The 13-member task force will also study the draft Acts and amendments that have already been prepared by the Ministry of Justice in relation to this subject and suggest any suitable amendments which are to be included in a draft law.

The other members of the task force are Prof. Dayananda Banda, Prof. Shanthinandana Wijesinghe, Prof. Sumedha Siriwardana, N.G. Sujeewa Panditharathna, Iresh Senevirathne, Sanjaya Marambe, Eranda Navarathna, Pani Wewala, Moulavi Mohomad of the Ulama Council – Galle, and Lecturers Mohomad Inthikab, Kaleel Rahuman and Azeez Nizardeen.

The gazette notifications said that the Task Force has seen set up focusing on the fair administration of justice and that no citizen should be discriminated against in the eye of law or meted out special treatment on grounds of nationality, religion, caste or any other grounds.

It states that the implementation of the concept ‘One Country, One Law’ within Sri Lanka is reflected as a methodology of ensuring nationally and internationally recognised humanitarian values and ensuring all citizens are treated alike. 

The task force is required to submit its final report by the end of February 2022. 

The selection of Ven. Gnanasara to head the task force by the President comes despite the former being slapped with a sentence of 19 years of imprisonment by the Court of Appeal – he was given a Presidential pardon thereafter.

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