{"id":17187,"date":"2026-02-23T14:43:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/02\/23\/sri-lanka-ends-mp-pensions\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:43:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:43:52","slug":"sri-lanka-ends-mp-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/02\/23\/sri-lanka-ends-mp-pensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Ends MP Pensions Immediately"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka’s parliament has voted to end pensions for all members of parliament and their widows, reflecting a government drive to cut political privileges. The move was presented by Justice Minister Heshan Nanayakkara<\/strong>, who argued that when people observe the quality of debates and speeches in the house they do not consider MPs deserving of pensions.<\/p>\n

The decision was taken swiftly on Tuesday, with the 225-member parliament\u2014where the ruling party holds a two-thirds majority\u2014voting 154 in favor and only two against the repeal. The vote immediately terminates MP pensions as part of the broader effort to scale back benefits for politicians.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa<\/strong> objected to the measure, saying pensions are necessary to ensure social protection for former members after leaving office. He warned that without pensions, ex-parliamentarians might be tempted to amass wealth through corruption to secure their post-retirement welfare.<\/p>\n

Under the previous law, MPs became eligible for pension after completing five years of service, while other public servants required at least ten years to qualify. The abolition of MP pensions narrows that distinction and signals a tightening of state support for former legislators.<\/p>\n

The move follows earlier legislation introduced last September to curb perks for former presidents after former President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/strong> refused to vacate an official residence. Perks such as luxury vehicles, fuel allowances, secretariat staff and personal security for ex-presidents have already been significantly reduced as part of the same drive to limit official entitlements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka ends MP pensions for members and widows after parliament vote; MP pensions cut to meet government pledge and curb official perks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}