Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe presented reports from 6 Sub committees to the constitutional assembly appointed to look into the new constitution making process.
The meeting of the Constitutional Assembly was held on Saturday (19) at 9.00 a.m. in the Chamber of Parliament.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is the Chairman of the Steering Committee, presented the Sub-Committee Reports to the Constitutional Assembly which were submitted to the Steering Committee by the Sub-Committees.
Wickremesinghe today assured Parliament the new Constitution will be drafted in consultation with all political parties and people would get a chance to approve it.
Leader of the Opposition and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan also said the Constitution needs to be approved in a nationwide referendum.
He said people must be given the chance to take part in the process and “people must be asked to approve it (Constitution)”.
Wickremesinghe, while presenting the reports, also voiced support for the Constitution to be finally approved by the people. He said the final form of the constitution was yet to be determined and one of the contentious issues was the position of the executive president.
“We have to consider if the change of the presidential system would lead to instability,” Wickremesinghe said.
“No party has a majority in the House so this will have to be an all political party effort and at the end of it we will give people the chance to approve it,” he said.
Joint Opposition MP Dinesh Gunawardana said their group had submitted a 14-point plan. He asserted that they would not agree on diluting the unitary nature of the state or diluting the position given to the majority religion of Buddhism.
“We would not agree to any bulldozing of the process. Things must not be done in a hurry,” he said.
The six sub-committees include: Fundamental Rights, The Judiciary, Law and Order, Public Finance, Public Service and Centre-Periphery Relations.
Each Sub-Committees consists of 11 members, including the Chairman, as resolved by the Steering Committee at its sitting on May 04, 2016 and subsequently approved by the Constitutional Assembly.
The Sub-Committees were mandated to develop constitutional principles for consideration of the Steering Committee in respect of the designated subject areas.
The government’s Constitutional reform process began in January this year. The whole Parliament was converted into a Constitutional assembly with cross-party participation.
Meanwhile President Maithripala Sirisena also arrived for the Parliament session today, in view of the debate on the President’s budgetary estimate taking place.
