The Subcommittee on Education, an extension of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Education and Human Resource Development will submit its report on the controversial Batticaloa campus to Parliament in early June.
The Chairman of the Subcommittee, Prof. Ashu Marasinghe, said they have completed the investigations and would finalise the report by the end of this month. “We hope to table it in Parliament early June,” he said.
The members of the subcommittee visited Batticaloa on Friday for an inspection tour of the campus site which is still under construction and met Chairman of the Batticaloa Campus Private Ltd Governor M.LA.M. Hizbullah and his son Hiras Hizbullah, the Director of Hiras Foundation under which the private campus is being built.
The Batticaloa campus, alleged to have been mooted as a higher education institute on the principles of Sharia Law, drew flak after the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
The subcommittee is also investigating the funding sources of the campus project, for which there is documentary proof of having received Rs. 3.6 billion from a private Trust Fund in Saudi Arabia between 2016 to 2017.
Governor Hizbullah reiterated his denial that it will serve as an institute for Sharia Law and said any attempt by the State to take over would be illegal since it has not been approved nor gazetted as a private university so far.
Once tabled in Parliament the report will be referred to the Cabinet of Ministers by the Speaker.
The Cabinet is expected to take a decision based on the recommendations of the subcommittee, within six weeks.