Government Group in crucial meeting over 

UNHRC Probe

 Monday, 30 June 2014 

The Government Parliamentary Group, chaired by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, will meet at a five star hotel in Bentota this afternoon to deliberate on a series of national issues confronting the country.

The principal issue to be discussed will be the government's proposed action plan in the wake of the investigations to be launched by the United Nations Human Rights Council on alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, top political sources told Ceylon Today.

The meeting which commences tomorrow afternoon, also involves overnight stay and will take in development issues and the state of the economy, in addition to the current state of play in the political landscape of the country, the sources said.

The meeting will be held on similar lines as the series of meetings held in Bentota last year and will also be a part of the series of meetings which were kicked off at Diyatalawa some years ago. The Group members will be staying overnight at the hotel and will disperse after breakfast on Tuesday morning.

Asked whether the group would also deliberate on a possible presidential poll in January, the sources replied in the negative, claiming that the presidential poll was not on the agenda of the meeting.

When it was pointed out that there was speculation that the proposed January presidential poll was likely to be postponed with the proposed visit of Pope Francis in the same month, the sources said no decision has been taken at the highest level of the government on the presidential election. Earlier, there was some speculation that some of the Catholic Ministers of the government had made representations to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to postpone the presidential polls on account of the Pope's visit.