Will guard statute‚ prez assures oppn

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: President Dr Ram Baran Yadav today assured leaders of opposition parties who have been demanding Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s ouster that he will to act in the ‘interest of the nation’ and ‘protect the constitution’.

“I shall act in the interest of the nation and protect the constitution being under the existing Constitution and laws,” Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, leader of Rastriya Janashakti Party, told The Himalayan Times quoting Dr Yadav after the meeting. “He assured us that he will work to protect the Constitution and we also feel that he will perform his duty to save the sovereignty of the state.”

During the meeting, Nepali Congress, UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rastriya Janashakti Party and others sought the President’s action to forge consensus. Submitting a memorandum to Dr Yadav, they said that the government has only two options — either to make the present government an all party government or step down for a new all party government — to pave a way out of the current political and constitutional stalemate.

They told the President that Bhattarai does not have constitutional and moral ground to stay in power and urged him not to authenticate any ordinance that the government brings.

NC President Sushil Koirala, Vice President Ram Chandra Paudel, UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, fringe party leaders Pashupati SJB Rana, Lohani and CP Mainali went to meet the president.

The leaders of 27 parties who met the Head of the State told him that the government does not have the right to bring budget through ordinance because its status is only that of a caretaker government.