Up to President to remove us – Hasan Ali

By Ravi Ladduwahetty-2013-06-28 

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), one of the constituent parties of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), will not pull out from the Alliance or the government, despite it not being appointed to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to make amendments to the 13th Amendment.

"We will not be leaving the Alliance or the government, despite not being appointed to the PSC; it is up to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the government to sack us," SLMC General Secretary, M.T. Hasan Ali, told Ceylon Today yesterday.

He also said his party has already taken their case of not being included in the PSC to the media, but emphasized the party did not go behind the government to receive nomination.

"On the other hand, we have no regrets about not being nominated to the PSC unlike some of the major parties including the United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and even the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), which being within the government is not represented in the PSC. Even the ideologies of the constituent parties of the government remain... ..different," the SLMC General Secretary said. Meanwhile, two SLMC Provincial Councillors of the North-Western Provincial Council, who voted with the motion brought by the Council that the 13th Amendment should be diluted, have been suspended, from the party membership.

The two suspended Provincial Council members are Rizwie Jawaharsha and Abdeen Yehiya. The suspension has been made by SLMC Leader and Justice Minister, Rauff Hakeem, and the party leadership, Hasan Ali confirmed.

He said the reason for the suspension was due to the two members going against the party's stand that it will not support any moves by the government to amend or dilute the 13th Amendment.

Sources said the two Provincial Councillors had originally opposed the motion, but had supported it later.