Wimal's party: Speaker's decision today

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said yesterday he would inform the decision regarding the request made by Joint Opposition MP Wimal Weerawansa of the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) to function independently in parliament today.

He said he was taking up the matter with the party leaders meeting yesterday.

"I will discuss the matter with party leaders today and inform parliament tomorrow," he said.
The speaker said he would request the opinion of the UPFA to arrive at a decision.

MP Weerawansa asked the Speaker not to act on the opinion of the UPFA.
Referring to the matter, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the letter sent by MP Weerawansa to remove from UPFA was not clear.

He said Mr. Weerawansa had mentioned in the letter that his group wanted to be removed from the UPFA but such a group had not contested from the UPFA and requested them to inform him individually whether they wanted to do so.

"The JNP is not a party in the UPFA. We do not have an agreement with them. If they really want to leave the UPFA, inform individually. Then I will reply immediately. We do not want to keep them by force," he said. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)