{"id":176735,"date":"2017-04-28T01:33:15","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T20:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=176735"},"modified":"2017-04-28T02:44:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T21:14:14","slug":"president-appoints-bunch-of-men-as-presidents-counsels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/president-appoints-bunch-of-men-as-presidents-counsels\/","title":{"rendered":"President Appoints “Bunch Of Men” As President\u2019s Counsels"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Maithripala Sirisena<\/a> has appointed a bunch of all male legal professionals as President\u2019s Counsels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

President Sirisena and first lady | File photo<\/p><\/div>\n

Out of the twenty-five male legal professionals elevated to President\u2019s Counsel, two of them, TNA spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran<\/a> MP and Upul Jayasuriya<\/a>, the chairman of the Board of Investments (BOI), had not applied through the formal channels. However, a number of senior female legal professionals \u2013 some of them with over thirty years of consecutive service in the bar \u2013\u00a0had also applied as per existing rules. It appears that they were not given due consideration.<\/p>\n

When asked on the exclusion of eminent women who had applied, gender justice activist Dr. Chamindra Weerawardhana<\/a> said \u201cIn a government that presents itself as an advocate of yahapalanaya (good governance), and as promoting gender equality and women\u2019s representation in the professions (including electoral politics), it is a cause for grave concern that such equality measures do not seem to apply to the senior-most women in the legal profession. As it is usually done in countering critiques of this government, one can argue that similar all-male appointments were made under the Rajapaksa administration. However, in voting for good governance, many Sri Lankans expected a change, this certainly is not the \u2018change\u2019 voters expected. This is a telling example of continuing business as usual in an extremely patriarchal power structure\u201d.<\/p>\n

The appointed members are as follows:<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. J.C. Weliamuna<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. M.A. Sumanthiran<\/li>\n
  3. Upul Jayasuriya<\/li>\n
  4. Daya Pelpola<\/li>\n
  5. Neville Abeyratne<\/li>\n
  6. W.K. Anuja Kaushika Premarathna<\/li>\n
  7. A.L.M. Hidayatullah<\/li>\n
  8. Samantha Rathwatte<\/li>\n
  9. Wijerathna Dharmasena<\/li>\n
  10. Upali Senarathna<\/li>\n
  11. Padma Bandara<\/li>\n
  12. S.K. Malik Peiris<\/li>\n
  13. Karunarathna Herath<\/li>\n
  14. Mahendra Suwadarathna<\/li>\n
  15. A.P.C.M. Jayasekara<\/li>\n
  16. Mohan Weerakoon<\/li>\n
  17. P.R.S.P. Samaranayaka<\/li>\n
  18. Ariya B.Rekawa<\/li>\n
  19. Ananda Wickramasekara<\/li>\n
  20. Anura Bandara Meddegoda<\/li>\n
  21. Vijaya Niranjan Perera<\/li>\n
  22. Karunadevage Wimaladasa<\/li>\n
  23. Mohammad Nisam Kariyappar<\/li>\n
  24. Vivekanandan Puvitharan<\/li>\n
  25. Nissanka Nanayakkara<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The President’s official website said: “the President appointed these Senior Lawyers, who have reached eminence in the profession and have maintained high standards of conduct and professional rectitude, according to the power vested in him under the clause 33(2)(e) of the Constitution as President\u2019s Counsels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":140857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nPresident Appoints "Bunch Of Men" As President\u2019s Counsels - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/president-appoints-bunch-of-men-as-presidents-counsels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"President Appoints "Bunch Of Men" As President\u2019s Counsels - 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