UNP dissidents withdraw their case against Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 01:30 GMT]
Eleven dissident parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and have been functioning as UNP Democratic Wing in the parliament holding ministerial posts in the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Friday withdrew their petitions filed against Ranil Wickremasinghe and Tissa Attanayake, president and general secretary of the UNP from taking steps to expel them from the proper UNP, legal sources said.

When the petitions came up for inquiry before the Colombo Additional District Judge Sisira Ratnayake Friday, petitioners sought permission from the court to withdraw their petitions. Counsel appeared for the petitioners made an application to court that they did not want to proceed with their petitions. One of the petitioners is the Minister for Public Administration and Home Affairs Karu Jayasuriya who is the leader of the UNP (D).

The Judge allowed the application and allowed the petitioners to withdraw their petitions without any costs.

Seventeen UNP parliamentarians crossed over to the government side two years back and started functioning as a separate group in the name UNP (D).Eleven of them were later sworn in as ministers in the UPFA government. The proper UNP appointed a committee to take disciplinary action against them by expelling them from the party.

The UNP (D) parliamentarians immediately filed petitions in the Colombo District Court against the UNP leader and secretary from taking disciplinary action against them.