Former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has expressed his views on the government’s decision to cut the pensions of former parliamentarians.
Former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, who is the chairman of the Retired Parliamentarians’ Association, has urged the government to reconsider the decision to suspend the MP pension.
He said that currently around 490 retired MPs and their widows are receiving this pension benefit, and that a large number of retired MPs even buy their daily medicines from this pension.
He stressed that there are 4 prominent party leaders among those receiving MP pensions, and that the majority of those receiving this benefit are people with economic difficulties.
The former Speaker said that since not all those who are appointed as public representatives are thieves or fraudsters, they should be treated with kindness towards these people who are living very difficult lives, and noted that paying pensions to retired public representatives is a practice that occurs in many countries such as India, America, and England.