Govt keen to resolve CC impasse

PRESIDENT Mahinda Rajapakse has sought the assistance of the UNP and the Muslim parties to nominate their members to reconstitute the Constitutional Council (CC) which is defunct at present.

President Rajapakse who met a UNP delegation led by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday had extensive discussions on the Constitutional Council, Public Service Commission (PSC) and Police Commission (PC) specially in view of the fact the Constitutional Council has not been reconstituted, Cabinet Spokesman Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told the weekly Cabinet briefing yesterday.

The Minister said President Rajapakse pointed out very clearly that nominations have already been given from the Government, but there has been certain lapses on the part of the Opposition and the Muslim parties.

The President assured that once the Opposition submits its nominations he would be able to reconstitute the Constitutional Council as well as the PSC and PC etc.

The UNP agreed to have a fresh look on this legislation and "we must amend or polish the sections of the 17th amendment and examine where there are grey areas or legal lacuna".

"Thereafter with certain amendments these bodies would function smoothly taking into consideration of past experiences. The discussions on this will resume on that separately at party leaders level."

The discussions also focused on certain lacuna in legislation for the Constitutional Council, PSC and PC, the Minister said.

"When we introduced the 17th amendment to the constitution we did not envisage certain things. Since we have been working under this 17th amendment for some time, we have a very practical experience. If one party does not appoint their member to the Constitutional Council there is no remedy now as it is. Therefore we have to plead and wait in such a case," he said.