Lanka to amend parliamentary laws

Sri Lanka will soon amend its parliamentary laws to fall in line with the best international practices, Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said yesterday.Addressing the eighth conference of the Association of Saarc Speakers and Parliamentarians, Jayasuriya said Sri Lanka hoped to make its parliamentary mechanism more effective and efficient, reports Xinhua news agency.He said the government would also soon introduce a new constitution to benefit all communities.The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) is a regional inter-governmental organisation whose member are Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Speaking at the conference, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said that the support of all parties is necessary to enact a new constitution which ensures a unitary state and strengthens parliament.“Our aim is to strengthen parliament while ensuring the unitary status of the country and the support of every lawmaker belonging to all political parties is essential to fulfil it,” the president said.“Let’s strive towards fulfilling our responsibility of building a secured future for those who will be born tomorrow,” he added.He recalled that parliament was weakened by the 1978 constitution and it was further weakened by the 18 amendments to the constitution. The president recalled that the present government was able to strengthen the legislature by the 19th amendment to the constitution. “We were able to increase powers of parliament by repealing the 18th amendment with the mandate of the people given to us on January 8, 2015,” the president said.