New committee to report on CJ’s impeachment: President
President Mahinda Rajapaksa this week told an eminent group of accountants and corporate chiefs that though he wasn’t mandated by law to appoint an independent panel to carry out a review on the impeachment motion against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, he was doing so to allay his conscience.
“I am also a lawyer. I am against the judicial system being undermined. I am finally answerable only to my conscience. This situation is saddening me as a lawyer,” the President said, addressing the recent commotion against the process adopted to impeach Dr. Bandaranayake. He added that he will instruct and implement a system although it has not been stated in books or law. However I have to be content with the decisions I take.” He said that an impeachment motion was signed and given to him by 117 MPs, but he wasn’t in favour of it at the time. “Now that has been tabled in parliament, the next step is to appoint a committee and obtain a report,” he said, noting that this is constitutional procedure and that all citizens in this country are governed by its constitution. Giving an insight into how all this started, he said that the opposition submitted a complaint with the Bribery and Corruption Commission against the CJ after the NSB- TFC fiasco. “This was done without our knowledge. The opposition was adamant that punishing the husband will not suffice because his wife holds a high post and that she too needs to be probed so that proper justice will be meted. All government MPs were completely silent on the matter,” he said, noting that the opposition went to the bribery commissioner and also publicised it by alerting the media that they would initiate an impeachment motion. He added that this is how the whole fiasco became politicised.
“If someone has made a mistake then I do not think that should be discussed in public. It need not be made public,” he added, noting that as of now the motion inquired into by the PSC will be debated in parliament next a month. The President was speaking at the opening of the new building complex of the Chartered Institute of Sri Lanka (CA) in Colombo which has cost Rs.550 million.
The new building will provide better facilities and services for the benefit of its key stakeholders including its over 4300 members, 37,000 students and members of the business community. The project which was launched in May 2011 was completed within an impressively short period of time, in keeping with the Mahinda Chinthana Vision towards transforming Sri Lanka as a knowledge hub in the world, along with a skilled workforce.
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