Sri Lanka''s opposition parties urge president to summon dissolved parliament

OutlookApril 27, 2020 18:06 ISTSri Lanka''s opposition parties urge president to summon dissolved parliamentoutlookindia.com 1970-01-01T05:30:00+0530Colombo, Apr 27 (PTI) Sri Lanka''s Opposition parties on Monday urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to summon the dissolved parliament while pledging cooperation to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. "We urge the president to respond positively to this offer of responsible cooperation by us at this critical time and revoke the proclamation dated 2 March 2020 dissolving parliament so that all of us can jointly fight to eradicate this virus," said a joint statement issued by the opposition parties. The new date clashed with the constitutional imperative that the new parliament has to meet within three months since its dissolution, ie June 2. The statement followed Rajapaksa’s assertion made at a meeting with the powerful Buddhist clergy on April 25 where the president told the monks that he would not at any cost recall the dissolved parliament. "Getting appropriate and new legislation passed in order to meet the public health crisis and obtaining parliamentary sanction to the utilization of monies from the consolidated fund are some such important and urgent functions of parliament," the statement asserted. The opposition argues that Rajapaksa has no power to draw public finances after April 30, the date up to which the dismissed parliament had approved expenditure. Therefore, the action to recall parliament would allow the governance proper and lawful in compliance with the constitution. In a related development, the military announced on Monday that the 120-member police team at the parliamentary complex would be replaced by an army contingent. Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds.