Speaker abiding by court on parliamentary secretaries

Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir on Thursday said he would obey the Chief Justice’s ruling that the appointments of Parliamentary Secretaries, Sarah Browne and Vikash Ramkissoon are unlawful.

Making his announcement before the commencement of  proceedings,  Nadir referred to words used by former Speaker, Dr Barton Scotland during a sitting of the National Assembly in 2016 in another matter.

“I refer to the words of the Honourable, former Speaker, Mr Scotland, on the 27th of February, 2016 and he concluded this way, ‘the honourable members are not here but I believe that I owe it to members of this House to understand their absence. Whatever views may exist at any time, the first obligation is to obey those decisions and then proceed from there’”, Nadir said.