Bathiudeen faces no-faith motion; Govt. in a quandary

Says will resign if President or Prime Minister asks him to do so

Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, facing a no-confidence motion is reported to have told the Cabinet yesterday that he would step down from his post if President Maithripala Sirisena or Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe asks him to do so.

He said in that case he along with four other MPS of his party would resign.

The United People’s

Freedom Alliance

(UPFA) has handed over a no-confidence motion against the minister alleging that he gave political patronage to those behind Easter

Sunday’s bomb attacks. The motion has placed the ruling United National Party (UNP) in a quandary with some of its Catholic MPS vowing to support it.

State Minister Niroshan Perera asked Mr. Bathiudeen to step down warning him that if he did not do so, the state minister would support the motion.

This matter came up for discussion at the Cabinet meeting yesterday where Mr. Bathiudeen denying the allegations levelled against him and said he would resign his portfolio if either the President or the Prime Minister requested him to do so. He is accused of asking Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake to release a terrorist suspect, supplying scrap copper to the factory owned by suicide bomber Imsham Ahamed Ibrahim and influencing the police to charge some of the workers of this factory under a different law other than the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) so that they could be granted bail.

The UPFA has handed over a no-confidence motion against the minister alleging that he gave political patronage to those behind Easter Sunday’s bomb attacks