Following visit by Cyril Ramaphosa
Friday, 11th July 2014
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reforms has been extended by another six months till the end of this year
In the wake of the visit by South African envoy Cyril Ramaphosa, the term of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reforms has been extended by another six months till the end of this year, sources said yesterday.
The Committee was appointed last year initially to evolve constitutional reforms needed to address the political question within six months. The PSC, chaired by Leader of the House and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, could not meet the target, and then the term was extended for six months till June this year.
However, the expected results could not be achieved during the first extension either and therefore, another six months have now been granted. The Committee is currently represented only by parties politically aligned with the government.
The opposition, including the UNP and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has boycotted it right from the beginning calling it a futile exercise.
The government asked Mr. Ramaphosa during his visit to Sri Lanka to convince the TNA of the importance of participating in the PSC process for a solution to the national question.
Mr. Ramaphosa then raised the matter with the TNA delegation. However, TNA leader R. Sampanthan who admitted that the matter was under discussion, declined to comment on whether his party had a change of mind on its stand regarding the participation in the PSC process.
From : http://epaper.dailymirror.lk/epaper/viewer.aspx
