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Muslim inaction delays Constitutional Council
The postponement on Friday of a meeting of Muslim MPs to finalise the community’s nominee to the Constitutional Council due to lack of a quorum is further delaying the revival of the council which has been unable to sit for the past six months.

Environmental Minister A.H.M. Fowzie who had undertaken to convene the meeting in Parliament told The Sunday Times that the meeting had to be postponed for the first week of October.

Muslim MPs have been unable to agree on a suitable candidate after the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress opposed the nomination of Javid Yusuf, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, on the grounds that he had been a parliamentary election candidate for the SLFP.

There is currently no consensus over two other names, Prof. A.H. Sherifdeen and former South East University Vice Chancellor, M.L.A. Cader. The failure to name the Muslim candidate has forced the delay of filling in vacancies in the Court of Appeal and casts a cloud of uncertainty over the Independent Police Commission and the Independent Public Service Commission when their terms end on November 24.

The coming into force of the Independent Elections Commission is also in abeyance because President Chandrika Kumaratunga is yet to approve or reject the five names proposed in 2003.

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