During the talks, representatives of Hong Kong, Pakistan and Sri Lanka posed questions to the PM, but no one heard his replies as the microphone had been out of order.

At first, the premier did not notice what had gone wrong, but he got disturbed after understanding it.

At that moment, Iqbal, who is from the PM’s office, had told the journalists to leave.

One of the journalists present told Sri Lanka Mirror that they were severely inconvenienced by the official’s action.

This is not the first time he had shown dislike to the media.

During a meeting the PM had with Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, Iqbal had disrupted the journalists covering the event.