Sri Lanka President Agrees To Remove PM Mahinda Rajapaksa Amid Crisis: Report

Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa.

(Photo: Twitter/@PresRajapaksa)

Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday, 29 April, consented to remove Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also his older brother, as the the country continued to reel under the worst economic crisis in decades, AP quoted lawmaker Maithripala Sirisena as saying.

As per the report, the president agreed for the appointment of a national council, which will choose a new prime minister and a Cabinet constituent of all parties in the Parliament.

On Thursday, working Sri Lankans went on a strike seeking the president's resignation, disrupting public transport and causing power shutdowns in the island nation.

For several weeks now, the country has been going through an economic meltdown of a scale unseen since the country's financial crisis of 1948. Prices of essential commodities like rice, milk, and oil have skyrocketed. resulting in massive nationwide protests leading to political instability.

The main cause is the shortage of foreign currency, which has led to a huge reduction in imports of essential items like petroleum, food, paper, sugar, lentils, medicines, and transportation equipment.

Amid the growing public agitation, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed a new Cabinet on 18 April. The president appointed a 17-member Cabinet, dropping most of the old and senior MPs and Rajapksa family members who were in the previous Cabinet.

Meanwhile, on 12 April, to save remaining foreign reserves for emergency supplies, Colombo announced that it would stop external debt payments pending a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

(With inputs from AP.)