Opposition questions two Muslim leaders resuming portfolios

• Says en mass resignation done to mislead the country 
• Kiriella tells Opposition question should be directed to President 

Following the swearing in of two Muslim lawmakers to their former portfolios the Opposition yesterday charged that the mass resignation of Muslim leaders was an act performed to mislead the country.

Soon after the Parliament concluded the time allocated for questions for oral answers, United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Nimal Lanza highlighting a media report wanted the Government clarification on certain Muslim lawmakers accepting ministerial portfolios. 

“Being a Catholic MP I demand to know the meaning of this drama. The Muslim ministers resigned to support the investigations on Easter Sunday attacks. They resigned for a month. Now the question is have we concluded the investigations or the period of one month expired? Two of the resigned ministers have accepted portfolios,” he charged.

In response on behalf of the Government, Public Enterprise, Kandyan Heritage and Kandy Development Minister and Leader of the House of Parliament Lakshman Kiriella held the particular questions should be asked from the President Maithripala Sirisena instead of raising it in the Parliament. 

“You should ask that question from the President. Their swearing-in before the President does not have any relevance to Parliament,” said Minister Kiriella.

Unable to reach a satisfactory answer, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya requested MP Lanza to inform the Parliament in advance when he is raising such questions enabling the Government to channel the question in the right the direction.

Disagreeing with the Speaker, MP Lanza said: “How could we inform you beforehand of this question? Only now the news broke that they accepted ministerial posts.”

Rejecting MP Lanza’s explanation, Speaker Jayasuriya advised avoiding the use of news alerts as the basis for questions raised in Parliament in order to save time. 

During the cause of the day, UPFA lawmaker Shehan Semasinghe held Muslim lawmakers jeopardised their ministerial portfolios in order to save MP Rishad Bathiudeen from the no-confidence motion. 

“The Muslim ministers resigned to save the Government. Today two of them took oaths again and got minister posts. Now their drama is very clear. When they resigned we said that it was a gimmick. That resignation was prompted by a racist decision. We have heard that all other Muslim MPs will also accept the portfolios in the coming days except Bathiudeen. We demand the Government to stop these dramas. The Muslim ministers resigned stating that they stepped down to support the investigations on the allegations against them that they maintained links with the IS. They said they would wait for a month. Now the investigations are still in progress and the stipulated time of one month is also not over,” said MP Semasinghe.

(AH)