The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law
Hon. Rauff Hakeem raised concern over the non-disclosure of statistics relating to Muslims who died during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing the matter as highly sensitive. He argued that such information should be available and publicly released in line with WHO norms, and said relying on the RTI Act to withhold it undermines the credibility of the Ministry of Health. He requested the Government to provide accurate statistics on the issue.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I am truly surprised. This issue concerning the Muslims who died during the pandemic is a highly sensitive matter. In fact, Hon. Minister, the Secretary of your Party, Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe, a specialist in communicable diseases seated behind you, stood up and spoke the truth publicly on this when other specialists remained silent. We appreciate that. However, while you cite statistics — you know such information must be available to the Government, as per WHO norms — and should be published openly, claiming that these cannot be released is, in my view, a serious stain on the integrity of the Ministry of Health.
¶ 02 Therefore, I kindly request you to provide us with the accurate information. Hiding behind the RTI Act and refusing to release statistics that ought to be public is a serious mistake. Please provide us with these statistics.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 December 2024 ·No. 1734685396083959 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 December 2024. No. 1734685396083959. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/18155