COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake resigned on Thursday following corruption allegations that allegedly caused millions of dollars of losses to the country’s coffers.
Karunanayake, who is being investigated by a commission appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena for allegations of corruption linked to a 2015 central bank bond scam, avoided a no-confidence motion against him submitted by the opposition, which would have put the government in a fix if it had been passed by parliament.
His resignation came after Speaker Karu Jayasuriya sent the motion to the attorney general for a legal opinion.
Protesting his innocence, Karunanayake constantly referred to the alleged misdeeds of the previous regime and principles of good governance promised by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration.
Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2017
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