Rauff Hakeem hits out at Cabinet colleagues‏

Minister of Urban Development Rauff Hakeem today hit out at unnamed Cabinet colleagues who have stifled him from speaking on electoral reforms inside the Cabinet. “I have been prevented form speaking at all. There are those with presidential dreams who are doing this. In our haste to get rid of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa we may have got into a bigger muddle,” Minister Hakeem said while speaking during the adjournment debate on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. The Minister, who is the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress SLMC) said that the manner in which the 20th amendment was gazetted was also flawed. “An injustice has been done by gazetting this without including our amendments,” he said. “This gazette must be withdrawn and a new on gazetted with amendments. I will not let this go,” he said. Minister Hakeem also warned members of the SLFP of those in the Cabinet who are now trying to latch into the SLFP and are having presidential dreams. He said that JVP MP Anura Dissanayaka had been corrected when he said during the debate that electoral reforms have been drafted by a “kitchen Cabinet.” “I am bound by collective cabinet responsibility so I cannot name anyone here but he is corrected. These amendments are being drafted to achieve some narrow political needs and not in the interest of the country, “he said.