6 October 2023 02:36 pm Views - 3362
Parliamentarian Chandima Weerakkody, raising a privilege issue in Parliament said that the Defence Secretary and the Army Commander had threatened him at a Committee meeting in the Parliament complex recently.
He told Parliament that Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne had made a threatening statement during the meeting of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security chaired by MP Sarath Weerasekara when he (Weerakkody) had made a statement regarding the downsizing of the Army.
The MP said he had mentioned at the Committee meeting that reducing the expenses of high-ranking military officers was better than reducing the number of soldiers to reduce the defence budget and that the Defence Secretary had made a threatening statement when he had made that statement.
He said it is against Standing Orders to make such threatening statements against an MP and requested the Speaker to summon them before the Privilege Committee.
Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapakse said the matter will be referred to the Privilege Committee.
NPP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said it is a serious situation if an MP is threatened in this manner and requested the Speaker to check the voice recordings and conduct an investigation.(Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)