CC: Select Committee report next Saturday?

The Parliamentary Select Committee set up to look into the operation of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution hopes to finalise an interim report when it meets on Saturday, PSC Chairman and Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera said. He said the report had been delayed due to the lack of consensus with the UNP pulling out of the committee last January in protest after 17 UNP members crossed over to the government.

Minister Gunasekera said he hoped the UNP too would attend Saturday’s meeting so that an interim report could be prepared and presented in Parliament.

“I have spoken to Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe about it. There are many flaws in the 17th Amendment that need to be rectified,” he said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe last Tuesday, that he would appoint the Constitutional Council no sooner the Select Committee report was submitted to him but the UNP insisted that the 17th Amendment should be implemented as it was already a part of the Constitution.