Video: Portfolios pointless if 19A not passed: Dy. Minister

22 April 2015 08:43 am Views - 7790

It is pointless for ministers to hold on to their portfolios after April 28 if the 19th Amendment is not enacted by then, a deputy minister said today.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P. Perera told a media briefing that the government should call it quits and parliament must be dissolved if the 19th Amendment was not enacted but he sounded optimistic about getting the legislation passed next Tuesday with President Maithripala Sirisena assuring that he would obtain the sufficient numbers for the passage of the 19th Amendment in parliament.

Referring to the move by the Bribery Commission to question former President Mahinda Rajapaksa the deputy minister said this decision was taken solely by the Commission.
 
“Government had never wanted to order such a probe because such a move was politically not advisable at this moment. If this move had political connotation then it should have been carried out much earlier or put off for later,” he said.
 
The deputy minister and Uva Chief Minister Harin Fernando who responded to a statement made by the former President that he did not penalize wrongdoers during his tenure said Mr. Rajapaksa should then name those wrongdoers.

“It may have been these wrongdoers who made a din in parliament,” Mr. Fernando said.(Yohan Perera and Darshana Sanjeewa)

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Pix by Kithsiri De Mel