PM Khan to no longer address Sri Lankan parliament during upcoming visit

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (not pictured) at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, on November 19, 2020. (AFP/File)

• Parliament spokesperson says speech canceled over Khan’s “tight schedule,” Pakistani mission in Colombo says has "no official information"
• Representatives of Sri Lanka’s Muslims say have lost hope Khan would take up their concerns in meetings with top officials

COLOMBO: A spokesperson for Sri Lanka’s parliament said on Wednesday an address by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan before the legislative body during an upcoming visit to the island nation had been canceled due to the premier’s “tight schedule.”
Khan is slated to arrive in Sri Lanka on February 23 on a two-day visit in which he will hold talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and attend an investors’ conference. He was expected to address the Lankan parliament on February 24.
“Premier Khan was scheduled to visit parliament on Feb, 24 and address the legislators, but unfortunately due to tight schedule of the visiting premier, this was canceled,” Shan Wijetunge, head of communications for the Sri Lanka parliament told Arab News on Wednesday. He added that Khan’s other programs would go on according to the schedule.
The press attache of the Pakistani mission in Colombo, Kalsoom Quaiser Jilani, said the embassy had “no official information about this matter.”
Sri Lanka’s daily Express quoted Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage as saying Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena had requested the cancelation due to Covid-19. But the same newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying elements within the Sri Lankan government did not want the speech to take place as they feared it would harm already strained ties with India. Khan was expected to raise the issue of India’s clampdown in the disputed Kashmir region during his speech.
“Another speculation doing the rounds is that the Sri Lankan government was concerned about Mr.Khan speaking about the rights of Muslims in Sri Lanka, who have faced abuses at the hands of Buddhist majority, rising anti-Muslim sentiments, and biased government actions,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said.
Muslims make up nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist. The community’s representatives say they have been receiving complaints of discrimination from across the country, especially since Easter Sunday attacks 2019, when reportedly Daesh-inspired militants killed over 250 people in churches and hotels across the country in Easter Sunday attacks in 2019.
In recent years, Buddhist hard-liners, led by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force,” have stoked hostility against Muslims.
“Muslim community had a lot of hopes for Khan to address some of their issues,” Sri Lanka Muslim Council president N. M. Ameen told Arab News.
He said that Imran Khan’s parliament address would have given legislators from all political and religious factions a chance to interact with him, but now “he will meet only the government officials, where he would come to know one side of the story.”