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By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana
Ali Zahir Moulana who is next on the SLMC list in the Batticaloa District will come into Parliament in place of Naseer Ahamad who is unseated with the judgement given by Supreme Courts. The Supreme Courts upheld the decision made by the SLMC leadership to expel him from the party.
Serjeant-at-Arms Narendra Fernando told Daily Mirror that Minister Ahamad is unseated from the House as of now. “Mr. Ahamed is unseated as of now. However, the Supreme Courts should send in its determination to the Speaker while the Secretary General of SLMC has to inform the Election Commission and Parliament that Mr. Moulana will replace Mr. Ahamed. The new MP can swear in after the election commission gazettes his name,” Fernando said.
The Supreme Court had given legal validity to an expulsion of an MP by his party after 32 years in the political history of Sri Lanka. The previous occasion in which the judiciary gave a judgement in favour of an expulsion was in 1991 when the courts declared the expulsion of eight MPs including Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake, G. M. Premachandra were legal. The MPs lost their seats in that instance.