MHM Ashraff

Muhammed Hussain Muhammed Ashraff ( Sinhala එම්. එච්. එම්. අෂ්රෆ් ; Tamil மு. ஹு. மு. அஷ்ரப் ; * October 23, 1948 in Samanthurai , Ampara District , Eastern Province ; † September 16, 2000 in Aranayaka , Kegalle District , Sabaragamuwa Province ) was a Sri Lankan politician who founded the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SMLC) in 1981 and was Minister for Ports, Shipping and Rehabilitation from 1994 to 2000. He died in a military helicopter crash east of Colombo .

Life

After attending Wesley College in Kalmunai, Ashraff completed a law degree at the Sri Lanka Law College, founded in 1874, and after graduating in 1974 took up a position as a lawyer . After a brief stint as a public prosecutor in 1975, he resumed his legal practice and specialized in criminal law. On September 21, 1981, he founded the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SMLC) to represent the country's Muslim minority. He later founded the National Unity Alliance (NUA), a coalition to represent all Muslim communities with the SLMC as the most important group. In the 1989 election he was elected member of the Sri Lankan Parliament for the first time for the SLMC and represented the constituency of Ampara until his death .

After the People's Alliance (PA) with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SFLP) founded in 1951 by SWRD Bandaranaike as the largest partner in the election of August 16, 1994, the People's Alliance (PA) was just the strongest party, but missed the absolute majority by eight votes, Ashraff won with his The SMLC, represented by seven MPs in parliament, was the “kingmaker” of a constructive minority government led by Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga and took over the office of Minister for Ports, Shipping and Rehabilitation in her cabinet. An office he retained even after Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Office of the November 12, 1994 President of the Republic had begun and Sirima Bandaranaike formed as prime minister on 14 November 1994 its third government.

On August 22, 2000, Ashraff resigned from his ministerial offices and withdrew his support with his SLMC of the government, which had been led by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake since August 10, 2000 , almost two months before the October 10, 2000 election . The reason for this was a newspaper article in the Sri Lanka Daily News in which the General Secretary of the People's Alliance and at the same time Minister for Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives, DM Jayaratne , stated that the Ashraff-led National Unity Alliance was not a partner in the ruling coalition. Less than a month later, on September 16, 2000, he and 14 other people were killed after a helicopter belonging to the Sri Lankan Air Force crashed and exploded in a mountainous region near Aranayaka , 65 kilometers east of Colombo . The Mil Mi-8 helicopter was on a 210-kilometer flight from Colombo to Ampara , where it was about to take part in a campaign rally. After the crash, the police said that the helicopter might have been shot down by Tamil rebels, but they did not rule out a technical error. Shortly before the start, he wrote the declaration that NUA and SLMC would no longer support the People's Alliance and the SLFP after the October 10, 2000 election.

His widow Ferial Ismail Ashraff was also a member of parliament between 2000 and 2010, temporarily a minister, and was appointed High Commissioner in Singapore in 2011.

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Parliament of Sri Lanka
• Entry in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ashraff dies in mystery crash . In: Sri Lanka Sunday Times of September 17, 2000
2. ^ Senior Sri Lankan Minister killed in helicopter crash . In: TamilNet of September 16, 2000
3. ↑ Ferial Ismail Ashraff on the website of the Parliament of Sri Lanka