News
Fonseka as Law and Order Minister: 98 MPs sign petition to President
A petition is to be handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday, calling for Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to be appointed as Law and Order Minister .
UNP Parliamentarian Ashu Marasinghe told the Sunday Times they were hoping to hand over the petition, signed by 98 MPs of the United National Front Government, to President Sirisena in Parliament.
“The President had not given an official appointment to hand over the petition, but MPs are hoping to hand it over to him when he is in the Parliamentary complex to attend Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting,” he said.
The petition is part of a sustained campaign by the UNF to persuade President Sirisena to appoint the one-time Army Commander as Minister of Law and Order. The President has kept the Police Department under the Ministry of Defence since he sacked the UNF Government last October.
The UNF argues that the Constitution’s 19th Amendment prohibits the President from holding the Police Department under him and insists that it be brought under the Ministry of Law and Order.
President Sirisena has so far refused multiple requests by the UNF to appoint Field Marshal Fonseka as Law and Order Minister and to gazette the Police under the Ministry of Law and Order.