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UNP to continue campaign to appoint Fonseka as Law and Order Minister
The United National Party (UNP) will continue to press for the appointment of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as the Minister of Law and Order next week, a senior party source said yesterday.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who brought the Police Department under him since his attempt to sack the UNP Government last year, had this week offered to appoint parliamentarian Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as an advisor to the Defence Ministry in the midst of the demand by the UNP to appoint the one-time Army Commander as Law and Order Minister. The President is reported to have said he would allow him to attend National Security Council meetings.
However, the President refused the UNP request this week to appoint Field Marshal Fonseka as Law and Order Minister when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and four ministers met him to discuss the prevailing security situation in the country following the Easter Sunday bombings blamed on a group of extremist influenced by the international terror group, ISIS (Islamic State for Iraq and Syria).
Field Marshall Fonseka is reported to have also said that he was not willing to accept any advisory post.
The UNP is to insist that the subject of the Police Department also be brought under the Law and Order Ministry.
The UNP delegation argued that constitutionally, only the Defence Ministry must be under the President and that as the UNP was in control of the coalition Government they wanted the Law and order Ministry to be under their party.
The Sunday Times learns that the President had told the Prime Minister-led UNP delegation that senior police officers were against the move to appoint the former Army Commander turned politician and they would not be able to work together, as a result..
UNP backbenchers have gathering signatures from MPs for a petition demanding that the Field Marshal be appointed as Law and Order Minister. Some 60 MPs have signed the petition by yesterday.
Meanwhile, four more Islamist organisations are to be proscribed under emergency regulations next week, a senior government official said.
The organisations are to be banned following revelations about their links with two other organisations which have already been banned due to their illegal activities.
Last week, the government proscribed the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) and the Jamiathu Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) declaring them as terrorist organisations.
The government is also introduce laws banning these organisations.