26 February 2019 12:01 am
By Lahiru Pothmulla
The committee report on unruly incidents that took place in Parliament last November is biased towards the United National Party (UNP), the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) said yesterday.
PHU leader and MP Udaya Gammanpila told a news briefing that out of the 59 MPs who were found guilty of various offences, 54 MPs belonged to the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), four to the UNP and one to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).
“Most of the MPs have been accused of entering the ‘Well of the House.’ MPs have been coming to the well since 1947. Once, when the Office on Missing Persons Act was passed, even Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came here. If this habit has never been considered as an offence, how did entering the well become an offence?” he asked.
He said JVP MP Vijitha Herath had been accused of approaching the Speaker to hand over the no-confidence motion. “If this is an offence, the Speaker should have asked the MP to return to his seat without accepting the motion. If MP Herath has committed an offence, the Speaker is a part of it too. This is not the only offence committed by the Speaker. When MPs Ranjan Ramanayake and Palitha Thewarapperuma brought knives to Parliament, we asked the Speaker to adjourn the parliamentary session, but the Speaker responded saying it did not matter because people even brought pistols to Parliament,” he said.
He said an offence should be considered an offence despite the political party to which the MPs belonged to. “It seems this committee has put the blame on everyone else other than UNP MPs. Therefore, we reject this report,” he said.
Out of the 59 MPs who were found guilty of various offences, 54 MPs belonged to the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), four to the UNP and one to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)