Sri Lanka wants Minister sacked over comments on China deal

**By APD Writer Easwaran **

COLOMBO, Aug. 22 (APD) -- Sri Lanka's ruling party on Tuesday demanded that Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who is also from the same party, be sacked over comments made against a deal between Sri Lanka and China.

Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.

The United National Party (UNP) has informed President Maithripala Sirisena to remove Rajapakshe from his post.

UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim said in a statement that Rajapakshe was given time till Monday by the UNP leadership to rectify a statement he had made against a cabinet decision on a port in the southern Hambantota town.

However Rajapakshe had failed to do so and as a result the party has now decided he must be removed from his cabinet post.

Hashim also said that Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe continued to make statements critical of the UNP and government decisions.

Rajapakshe had made statements critical of the cabinet decision on the Hambantota port agreement which was signed between Sri Lanka and a Chinese company recently.

The UNP hit out at Rajapakshe for being critical of the cabinet decision and also over his failure as Justice Minister to ensure investigations into corruption by the former regime saw more progress.

Rajapakshe, however, defended some of his comments on the Hambantota deal. He also insisted he could not interfere in the judicial process over investigations into alleged corruption by the former regime.

(ASIA PACIFIC DIALY)