Following the Speaker of the Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana informing the Parliament on Tuesday (23) of the President's order to call the armed forces to maintain law and order in the country, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) yesterday (24) said that the decision had been made with the idea of continuing the essential services and not based on any other reason.

When queried by The Daily Morning yesterday in this regard, sources within the Ministry also said that the same order by the President and the Ministry of Defence is being gazetted for several months in order to continue the supply of essential services with no obstruction. “The President has issued this order many times over the past few months according to the need of the time. The main purpose is supplying essential services to the public without any obstruction. Otherwise, there is no other purpose behind this. This is not something which is abnormal to the public as this gazette has been issued several times,” he said.

Speaker Abeywardana informed the Parliament on Tuesday of the President’s order to call the armed forces to maintain law and order in the country. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as the Minister of Defence, issued the order under the powers vested by Section 12 of the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter 40).