The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Bimal Rathnayake clarified the procedure for scheduling oral questions, responding to an Opposition claim that Government MPs receive more opportunities. He said the Table Office processes questions through the relevant ministries and lists them when answers are ready in all three languages, with up to ten questions scheduled per day and no Government–Opposition bias. He also urged members not to criticize Table Office staff, stating that they work to uphold parliamentary procedure.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, with your leave, I wish to clarify about oral questions. Yesterday, an Opposition MP claimed more opportunities were given to Government MPs. Today’s Order Paper carried four oral questions—all asked by the Opposition—and we spent over an hour on them. The Table Office registers questions, sends them to ministries, and once answers in three languages are ready, they are placed on the Order Book. Up to ten questions per day are scheduled; if fewer MPs are present with answers ready, one MP may get to ask two. There is no Government–Opposition bias. Please do not disparage the Table Office staff who work hard to uphold procedure.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Wednesday, 8 January 2025 ·No. 1737023464031571 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 8 January 2025. No. 1737023464031571. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/27580