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President’s Feb 8 policy statement to focus on way forward
View(s):- Prorogation dissolves more than 40 parliamentary committees, including COPF, COPE and COPA
By Sandun Jayawardana
With Parliament prorogued till February 8 from midnight on Friday (27), other Committees that have ceased to function include the Committee on Parliamentary Business, the Committee on Standing Orders, the Committee on Ethics and Privileges, the Legislative Standing Committee and all Ministerial Consultative Committees.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is scheduled to ceremonially inaugurate the 4th Session of the 9th Parliament at 10 am on February 8.
As is traditional, President Wickremesinghe will deliver his Government’s Policy Statement at the start of the new Parliamentary session.
Sources close to the Presidency told the Sunday Times that President Wickremesinghe was expected to follow up on his discussions on national reconciliation at last Friday’s All-Party Conference where he was flanked by two former Presidents, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena, and Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
President Wickremesinghe said he was only performing the functions of the country’s Executive in fully implementing the 13th Amendment that provided for the devolution of police and land powers to the Provincial Councils and added that if Parliament did not agree with 13A, it was at liberty to repeal the law.
The Policy Statement is likely to mention the drafting of a National Land Policy Law by the end of February and a National Land Commission that will have to abide by that law. The policy will determine how state, forest and other lands can be alienated and developed.
The presidential statement will also deal with the creation of a Provincial Police Commission and provincial powers on Education, it is learnt.
An official statement issued by the President’s Media Division (PMD) states, “The Policy Statement to be implemented in the country from the 75th Independence celebration in 2023 until the Centenary celebration in 2048, consisting of new policies, new laws and acts proposed to be implemented for the betterment of the country, irrespective of party, colour or caste discrimination, will be presented to Parliament”.
Meanwhile, the prorogation, however, will not affect the Committee on High Posts, Sectoral Oversight Committees and Select Committees of Parliament.
It will also have no impact on the activities of the Constitutional Council (CC) which does not come under Standing Orders of Parliament. The CC which met for the first time on Wednesday decided to call for applications from interested and qualified individuals to serve as members of the Independent Commissions.
Parliament’s Committee of Selection has to be appointed once it reconvenes for the new session. That Committee must then make appointments to all other Committees including COPF, COPE and COPA.
The President’s move will disrupt the activities of Parliamentary Committees, said COPF Chairman and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) frontliner Dr. Harsha De Silva. The COPF Chairman said he was “puzzled” by the President’s sudden move to prorogue Parliament at this stage.
Dr. De Silva pointed out that the President could easily make a special statement in Parliament, as he has done on several occasions over the past few months. “He doesn’t need to make that speech from the Speaker’s chair. Why does he have to disrupt everything (by proroguing Parliament)?” he asked.
He warned that it could take months to fully reconstitute all the Committees.
COPE Chairman and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Parliamentarian Prof. Ranjith Bandara, however, dismissed such fears saying he did not believe the prorogation would have a major impact on the activities of COPE.
“I have continued with the work begun by former Chairman Prof. Charitha Herath,” he pointed out, saying COPE would continue its investigations from where they left off once the Committee was reconstituted.
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