The rank of President’s Counsel (PC) in Sri Lanka – originally Queen’s Counsel (QC), as it is in UK – is awarded to the most senior lawyers who are experts in a particular field. The title refers to those considered sufficiently eminent as to be appointed to represent the head of state.
According to Sri Lanka’s constitution, PCs are those lawyers who have “reached eminence in the profession and have maintained high standards of conduct and professional rectitude.”
Thus, at a time Sri Lanka is under growing international scrutiny for mass killings during the final months of the island’s war, it is telling that this is what one PC, Jayantha Gunasekera, has to say:
“[UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-Moon and his panel [of experts] have been heavily influenced by the Tamil, Navaneethan Pillai, UN Human Rights High Commissioner, who is in cahoots with the LTTE Diaspora.
“She is highly communal minded. She issued a strongly worded statement no sooner the report was released. She welcomed the public release of the statement and supported the cause. The report calls for further international investigations. …
“She has for some time been a hater of the Sinhala led government and is playing a communal game.
“She has however, brought her influence to bear, and succeeded in securing a convoluted and psychotic report to satisfy her brethren - the Tamil Diaspora.
“She too has opened herself, to and inquiry as to whether she is using her office to satisfy her personal agenda. As to whether she should continue as an employee of the UN, is a matter to be inquired into.”
See Gunasekera's full comment, published Saturday in the leading English-language daily, Daily Mirror here.
