Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Sri Lankan opposition leader and former prime minister, came down hard on the government, saying Colombo Port City will have more power than Prabhakaran, the former Tamil rebel commander who had once created a de facto Tamil state in the north and eastern part of Sri Lanka. 

“I have heard this being said about a Chinese colony, but what it can be is an area which will have more power than the area that Prabhakaran ran during the war,” Wickremesinghe, popularly known by his first name Ranil, was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror.  

“I'm surprised the people who said one country one law are having two laws for the same country,” he added. 

The LTTE,  led by Prabhakaran who was killed in 2009 by Sri Lankan forces, had waged one of the most brutal insurgencies in the island nation for almost three decades. The group had sought to create a separate Tamil nation out of Sri Lanka.

It was under the prime ministership of Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2002, the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE had signed a ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway. The agreement, which later broke down, had created a de facto Tamil territory controlled by the group for which Ranil still faces criticism.

The proposed Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill has provisions of setting up a special commission with a wide-ranging power and a separate set of rules to administer the Port City. The bill grants immunity to members of the commission from exiting laws. 

The fresh salvo by Ranil came a day after he warned the government that the country could be blacklisted for money laundering if the government moves ahead with the bill. Other opposition leaders accused the government of converting the port city -- a dream project of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa-- into a "Chinese colony". 

The Sri Lankan government, on the other hand, defended the bill, saying it would facilitate foreign direct investment in the country. The country apex court, too, has been hearing a slew of petitions challenging the validity of the bill. 

The government, however, seems to be buckling under pressure as it hinted at introducing amendments to the proposed bill.