The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Hon. Bimal Rathnayake stated that ministerial answers to parliamentary Questions reflect the position at the time the response is prepared, not necessarily the situation when the Question was first submitted or later debated. He said delays in answering can mean circumstances change, including on matters such as dual citizenship, and argued this should be understood as normal parliamentary practice rather than concealment.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, when Hon. Members ask Questions and the Ministries provide answers, Ministers can only state the position as at the time of answering. Otherwise, there is no issue—we do not need to hide whether someone is a dual citizen or not. Some Questions take months to get answered; by then the situation could have changed or been resolved. Sometimes the issue might not even exist by the time the Question is asked. Therefore, it must be understood as a practice that the position at the time of preparing the answer is what is reported. That is the parliamentary reality and usual practice.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 6 June 2025 ·No. 1750753418078417 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 June 2025. No. 1750753418078417. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/28353