Parliamentarian Dinesh Gunewardena said that he hopes to write to the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya over the decision to remove him from the Chambers and subsequently suspend him from attending Parliament.
MEP leader and Joint Opposition member Dinesh Gunewardena told the Sunday Observer that he is in the process of drafting the letter to the Speaker which will address certain statements made by the Speaker pertaining to him being suspended from Parliament.
“The Speaker had made statements to the effect that I opposed him while he was presenting a Private Member’s Bill in the past. These are utterances that should not be made by a Speaker of a Parliament. He should bear in mind that whatever that transpired was not while I was in a capacity of a Speaker but merely as a Minister or a MP,” Gunewardena said.
The letter will further address certain concerns based on the decision to remove the MP from Chambers during the sessions.
While in Parliament last Wednesday, the Speaker ordered the removal of MP Gunewardena on the basis of unruly behaviour and continuous interruption of the proceedings of the House.The Speaker then executing the powers vested in him under Standing Order 74(I), ordered Gunawardena to leave the House. When the MP resisted the orders of the Speaker to leave the House, he was removed after warranting the Police into the Chambers.
Subsequently a motion was passed to suspend MP Guneawardena from attending Parliament for a week. The motion was passed by 85 votes in favour and 22 against.