MPs nominated to ’National Council’ established by the Prime Minister’s resolution

The Speaker presented the list of Members of Parliament, who have been nominated to the ’National Council’, which was established according to the proposal presented by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. The names of the Members of Parliament from the recognized political partieswere submitted to the Parliament on 23.09.2022.
Presenting an amendment, the chief Government Whip said that the ’National Council’ chaired by the Speaker should consist of not more than 35 Members of Parliament representing the ninth Parliament from recognized political parties in this country including the Prime Minister, the Leader of the House, the Leader of the Opposition, the Chief Government Whip and the Chief Organizer of the Opposition.

The MPs who will be included in the National Council currently presented to the Parliament are as follows:Douglas Dewananda, NazeerAhamed, Tiran Alas,SisiraJayakody, SivanesathureiChandrakanthan, Johnston Fernando, Rauff Hakeem, PavithradeviWanniarachchi, VajiraAbeywardena, A.L.M. Athaullah, Professor TissaWitharana, RishadBadiuddin, WimalWeerawansa, VasudevaNanayakkara, PalaniDigambaram, Mano Ganesan, UdayaGammanpila, RohithaAbeygunawardena, NamalRajapaksa, JeevanThondaman, G.G. Ponnambalam, Ven. AthuraliyeRathanaThera, AsankaNavaratne, Ali Sabri, C.V. Wigneswaram, WeerasumanaWeerasinghe and SagaraKariyawasam.
The names of another group of parliamentarians are to be announced in the near future.

The National Council resolution submitted by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to the Parliament on 20.09.2022 was passed in the Parliament without division.

The Prime Minister said that guiding the formulation of short, medium and long-term national policies withthe consensus of all parties is a prominent task of the ’National Council’.Another responsibility is to agree on short-term programmes related to economic stabilization.

It is also responsible with organizing activities for special meetings attended by the Cabinet of Ministers, Chairpersons of National Council and Special Committees and Youth Observers of Youth Organizations.
The ’National Council’ also has the authority to summon reports from the Sectoral Monitoring Committees, the Committee on Government Finance, the Committee on Government Accounts, the Committee on Public Enterprises and any committee that controls the government’s finances.

The National Council will be chaired by the Speaker and not more than thirty-five (35) Members of Parliament representing the Ninth Parliament from the recognized political parties of Sri Lanka including the Prime Minister, the Leader of the House of Parliament, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Government whip will be its members.