Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by a Colombo-based NGO against the appointment of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as a government minister, reports Colombo Gazette.

The petition, was filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), challenged the appointment of the former army commander stating that it violates Sri Lanka’s constitution.

CPA stated that under Article 99A of the Sri Lankan constitution, Mr Fonseka should not be appointed as a minister as district nomination papers or national lists submitted by political parties did not include his name.

The appointment sparked criticism from human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch who said it sends “worrying signals on accountability” from both the Sri Lankan president and prime minister.

The UK government recognises that much remains to be done in Sri Lanka and said it will continue to supporting and encouraging Sri Lanka to deliver "fully their commitments", according to FCO secretary Hugo Swire.

The secretary was responding to a question by the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T), James Berry, who is the MP for Kingston and Surbiton, who said that progress to date "has been slow to non-existent".

Putting forward its proposals for a political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and constitutional reform, the Northern Provincial Council urged a federal state structure of two broad linguistic states, including the Sinhala speaking states of 7 provinces and a Tamil speaking North-Eastern state parliament with full land and police powers.

Stressing the importance of ensuring equality within the devolved areas, the NPC called for a Muslim autonomous Regional Council within the North-East state.

The NPC also stated the military should be removed as an occupying force from the North-East, and the Prevention of Terrorism Act should be repealed.

The document was formally handed over the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R Sampanthan.

Find full document here in English and Tamil.

Extracts of key proposals reproduced below:

"Sri Lanka must basically and fundamentally be declared to contain two broad linguistic States, the Northern and Eastern Province consisting of Majority Tamil speaking State and the other seven Provinces consisting of Majority Sinhala speaking State.

It is essential that a federal system of Government is adopted in preference to a unitary system of Government.