SJB threatens to move SC against recommendations of PCoI on political victimisation

By Saman Indrajith

Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella yesterday said that the SJB would move the Supreme Court against the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on political victimisation.

Addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s office in Colombo, MP Kiriella said that the party had consulted its legal advisors to explore the possibility of filing a case against the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on political victimization for exceeding its mandate. “We have not yet received the report officially. When we get it we plan to take legal action against it. We have requested the Speaker for a copy of the report. He said he would do so. He is duty bound to make a copy available to Parliament.

“We first asked the Speaker for the report on Jan 28. As per the Constitution the President is responsible to Parliament therefore he has a duty to send the report to MPs through the Speaker.”

When it was pointed out the yahapalana government of which MP Kiriella was a leading member too had appointed anti-corruption Commissions which could not deliver results and caused a waste of public money, the MP said those Commissions had been tasked with only fact finding.

“Thereafter, those facts should have been forwarded to the Department of Attorney General and the Bribery Commission for further actions. There has been a delay in that process but the Commission completed its fact finding mission.”

The Chief Opposition Whip said: “There is a discussion in the media on attempts to deprive some prominent person of their civic rights. This country has a legal system that has provisions to take punitive actions against anyone who had committed an offence or political victimization. The government has to abide by the law. We have set an example in this regard. When we came to power in 2015 there had been requests from various quarters to appoint commissions to investigate the wrongdoings of some politicians and to strip them of their civic rights. But the then President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated clearly that there was a legal system and the law should take its own course. They stood by the decision that there were the police, attorney general department and judiciary and those institutions were sufficient to implement the law and did not move to appoint special presidential commissions to take actions against their rival political parties. Opting to make use of such commissions to punish political rivals is actually an outdated mechanism.  It was former President JR Jayewardene who introduced the practice of depriving political opponents of their civic rights. That goernment incurred international opprobium That was why no government since 1981 has resorted to such action, but the incumbent government seems to be convinced otherwise.”