APRC proposals handed over to President:
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday appealed to all political parties to join hands to solve the national question within a common agenda sans their private agendas and party differences, thinking of their Motherland and the common masses.
President Rajapaksa made this appeal at the historic occasion in which the Chairman of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) Prof Tissa Vitharana handed over the draft proposals of the APRC to solve the national question at the Presidential Secretariat.
“All political parties should join hands for the sake of the common masses of the country to provide them a political solution and to salvage the country from terrorism, considering it as their bounden duty and responsibility”, the President said.
The proposals were handed over to the President following his request to the APRC on January 09 to hand over the draft proposals by January 23 for him to go ahead with the proposals to solve the national issue after obtaining approval from the Cabinet.
President Rajapaksa thanked all the political parties represented at the APRC and also those who left the APRC prior to the completion of the final proposals for their participation at APRC deliberations. He also thanked the APRC members for handing over their proposals within the stipulated period.
The President explained that the handing over of the proposals was a fulfilment of a requirement of the country as the public expected a political solution to fully implement the Constitution in all parts of the country.
“Today we have an environment to implement these political proposals in the country though it was difficult due to interference by the LTTE in the North,” the President added.
He said that all political parties share the responsibility in the process of ensuring democratic rights and the people’s right to live without any fear regardless of their ethnicity.
The party leaders who participated at the event expressed satisfaction that the APRC was able to finalise the proposals at a time the nation was about to celebrate 60 years of independence next month.
“We should find a political solution for the political problem of the country. There is no military solution to political problems. That is very clear. The solution to terrorism is a different one. We are bound to fulfil all aspirations of the people,” the President added.
He also said that proposals could be discussed with the Cabinet of Ministers and also with other political parties in order to rectify any shortcomings.
The President also thanked the party leaders for agreeing to proposals and for expressing their willingness to extend their support for the proposals in the future too.
Political party representatives representing the Parliament and outside the Parliament participated.
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