Remaining seven Muslim MPs to be sworn-in today

The remaining seven out of the nine Muslim parliamentarians who resigned their ministerial portfolios, are to be sworn-in as cabinet ministers before President Maithripala Sirisena this morning at the Presidential Secretariat in the same positions they held previously.

Accordingly, Rauiff Hakeem and Rishad Bathiudeen as cabinet ministers, Faizal Cassim, H.M.M. Fariz, Ameer Ali, and Ali Zahir Mowlana as state ministers and Abdul Mahroof as deputy minister are to take up their portfolios today.

Nine Muslim MPs, as an act of supporting the ongoing investigations over Easter Sunday Bomb blasts, resigned from their ministerial portfolios on June 3.

Kabir Hashim and Abdul Haleem had already taken up their posts as ministers on June 19 in the same positions they held before. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had written to President Maithripala Sirisena on July 24 recommending the remaining seven Muslim MPs be given the relevant portfolios. (Ajantha Kumara Agalakada)