Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said on Wednesday that he was committed to protect democracy despite personal abuse and slander thrown at him by the government led by disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In a statement, Jayasuriya said the baseless allegations are levelled against him "through regular press conferences by political parties that failed to show their majority in parliament in the proper manner and through political protests organised with the participation of their party members can be observed."
Jayasuriya also filed a complaint with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) over a fake letter circulating on social media claiming it was sent by him to the Chief Justice, the Colombo Gazette reported.
The letter quoted Jayasuriya as requesting the opinion of the Chief Justice on if President Maithripapala Sirisena was in a situation where he could not exercise, perform and discharge the powers, duties and functions of his office, the paper said.
Jayasuriya said he had never sent such a letter and has requested the CID to investigate the fake letter.
Sri Lanka is witnessing a political crisis since President Sirisena abruptly sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and installed ex-strongman Rajapaksa in his place on October 26.
Sirisena later dissolved Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and ordered snap election. The Supreme Court overturned Sirisena's decision to dissolve Parliament and halted the preparations for snap polls.
Speaker Jayasuriya then ordered a floor test in the 225-member assembly to end the ongoing political crisis, a move which invited the wrath of the government of Rajapaksa.
Both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa claim to be the prime ministers.
Sirisena's action to suspend parliament so that Rajapaksa can engineer defections to manage 113 seats for a simple majority was also defied by Jayasuriya. He summoned parliament against Sirisena's wishes and declared that he would not recognise Rajapaksa as the lawful prime minister until he proved his majority in the House.
Jayasuriya conducted the assembly proceedings amidst violence by the purported government MPs who threw furniture and chili powder at both Jayasuriya and the police summoned by the speaker to conduct the House proceedings.
On Wednesday, Wickremesinghe's United National Party handed Parliament another motion demanding suspension of funds of all ministry secretaries whom they claim had been illegally appointed since October 26.
The party has warned officials that carrying out "illegal orders" from an "illegal" government could spell trouble for them.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
