The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Bimal Rathnayake said the incident involving Hon. Shritharan at the airport would be inquired into through the Deputy Minister of Defence and referred to Immigration and Emigration, while asking that the related privileges complaint be forwarded to the Government. He stated that it was unclear whether the PTA was involved, denied that the incident reflected Government policy or direction, and assured the House that the Member’s privileges would be protected. He added that, while new legislation is being drafted, existing laws must be used cautiously to maintain governance.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, we learned of this just now. Though not directly under the Airport Chairman, it occurred at the airport. I have asked the Deputy Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Aruna Jayasekara, to inquire, and this should be referred to Immigration and Emigration. Hon. Member, if you share your letter to the Committee on Privileges with us via the Deputy Minister, we will proceed. We regret the difficulty faced by Hon. Shritharan. It is not clear this involved the PTA; he did not say so either, and he faced no issue on return. This is not Government policy or direction. We assure the House that his privileges will be protected. While a new law is being drafted, we must use existing laws cautiously to maintain governance and pass legislation.
¶ 02 Please forward the letter regarding the breach of privilege to us.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 21 January 2025 ·No. 1737707091008005 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 January 2025. No. 1737707091008005. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/27197