Nizam Kariapper
Mohamed Nizam Kariapper is a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician, and poet. He currently serves as a member of parliament and is the secretary general of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. In recognition of his contributions to the legal profession, he was appointed as a President's Counsel in 2017. Kariapper previously held the position of Mayor of the Kalmunai Municipal Council and is also a published Tamil poet.
Early life and education
Kariapper was born in 1963 in Kalmunai, a city in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, to the historic Kariapper family. He is the son of M. H. Kariapper, a former district judge, and is the youngest grandson of ‘Vanniyar’ Abdul Latheef Kariapper.Kariapper began his primary education at a pansala school in Kalmunai. He was one of three students to pass the Grade Five Scholarship Examination, which secured him admission to D. S. Senanayake College in Colombo. He later pursued his Advanced Level studies in the Mathematics stream.
After completing his secondary education, Kariapper focused on law. He passed the entrance examination to Sri Lanka Law College and completed his attorney final examination with honors.
Legal career
Kariapper was enrolled as an attorney-at-law in the mid-1980s and began his legal practice in Colombo. In November 1986, he joined the Attorney General’s Department as a State Counsel, where he served until 1991. He then established his own legal chamber in Colombo, specializing in civil appeals and fundamental rights litigation before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.In 2001, he briefly served as a member of the Public Service Commission of Sri Lanka. He later pursued postgraduate studies and obtained a master's degree in public law from the University of Colombo in 2011.
In 2017, Kariapper was appointed as a President's Counsel, the highest recognition awarded to a practicing lawyer in Sri Lanka.
Political career
Kariapper is a founding member of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and currently serves as its secretary general. He has been a longstanding member of the party’s Constitutional Affairs Committee, representing the SLMC in constitutional reform discussions both nationally and internationally.He served as the mayor of Kalmunai in 2014 and entered the Parliament of Sri Lanka as a National List member in December 2024.