PM sought the special Cabinet meeting-prez

Minister Karunanayake called me on Thursday morning and conveyed the interest in summoning a Cabinet meeting hurriedly I told him the request should come from the Prime Minister The PSC only wanted the meeting to take place in camera, though there were re

Controversy surrounding the hurriedly summoned Cabinet meeting took a dramatic turn when President Maithripala Sirisena said only Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted it to be convened on that day. He made these remarks in his address to his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)’S Matale district summit.

The President said Power, Energy and Business Development Minister Ravi Karunanayake called him early in the morning of that day and conveyed the Prime Minister’s interest in convening the Cabinet meeting. The President said there was no call from the Prime Minister, and therefore he contacted the latter and inquired about it.

“I saw media reports quoting the Prime Minister that I only called for it. I have to ask the Prime Minister how he could say something like that. Minister Karunanayake called me on Thursday morning and conveyed the interest in summoning a Cabinet meeting hurriedly. I told him that the request should come from the Prime Minister, not from Minister Karunanayake. Afterward, I put the phone down. Mr. Karunanayake rang me up after 10-15 minutes and informed me that the Prime Minister was ready. Again I asked the Prime Minister to contact me. There was no response. So, I phoned the Prime Minister. Then, the Prime Minister said that he wanted a Cabinet meeting as conveyed by Mr. Karunanayake,” the President said. Referring to his statement before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday carnage, he said the PSC only wanted the meeting to take place in camera on a request, though there were reports that he wanted the media out. Commenting on the party, he said the SLFP was a strong political collective and what was more important was the value of the principles of a political party.“the Party will embark on a journey to take the country forward and no one will be able to suppress it. As a political party with a long political history, the image of the SLFP has not been tarnished by allegations of corruption, opportunism or nepotism,” the President said.

The President said the Bribery Commission’s former Director General Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe should reveal the names of the politicians who ordered that court cases be filed unjustly. He said this at the Matale District Convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on Saturday, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

Commenting on the audiotape of Ms. Wickramasinghe, the President said she vacated her post without his knowledge.

He recalled a request made by the Prime Minister recently to appoint her, while working at the Bribery Commission during office hours and at the Bribery and Corruption Secretariat set up at Temple Trees later to a post of a judge of the Supreme Court.the President said he was consistently of the view that the executive presidency should be abolished but the attempts to abolish it at a time when an election had been declared was a farcical exercise.