The past tenures of Deuba as PM have not been particularly remarkable for their performance and this is the opportunity for Deuba as well to prove doubters wrong

There has been an inordinate delay in the cabinet expansion although more than one and half months has elapsed since Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba became Prime Minister for the fourth time. For one reason or another, including the second-phase local election, he has not been able to expand his cabinet. A number of ministries have not got their political leaders; as a result, their performance has been suffering because major decisions get postponed for lack of the minister concerned in any ministry. For this the Prime Minister should take responsibility whatever may be the reasons for the delay -- personal, partisan, party fighting, tactical factors, etc. The Nepali Congress’s important coalition partner, the CPN-Maoist Centre -- has expressed its impatience over the delay from time to time, with its chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, even making a veiled threat, whatever its substance, that his party might look for an alternative. On its part, the CPN-Maoist Centre has already decided on the list of its members who will become ministers. Prime Minister Deuba has come under criticism even from within his party for his delay in expanding the cabinet and for his leadership style, including at the central working committee meeting. The Prime Minister needs to be decisive and do what is necessary without further delay. He has assured the Maoist Centre that the cabinet will be expanded in a day or two, though such assurances had been given earlier as well.

Apart from promptness, what is expected of him and top leaders of other coalition partners that only the deserving are given the ministerial posts and the size of the Council of Ministers will not be made too big just for petty reasons, for example, to appease fringe parties. He should make a break with the past if he is to be remembered for good reasons. Deuba’s inability to  expand the cabinet has led to embarrassing questions about the competence of his party and government leadership. He should act resolutely to put all doubts and the burden of past weighing on him to rest. There is an understanding between him and the the CPN-Maoist Centre leadership that NC will get 13 ministries and the CPN-MC, nine.

We are already pressed for time to hold remaining elections which must be conducted by 21 January 2018. The way Deuba is handling things has left room for his critics that unless he mends his ways it would be extremely difficult to meet the constitutional deadline. Therefore, there should be no further delay in appointing the lawmakers as ministers, and they should be picked for their qualification and ability. The past tenures of Deuba as Prime Minister have not been particularly remarkable for their performance and this is the opportunity for Deuba as well to prove doubters wrong. Furthermore, he should build a proper working relationship with the opposition parties too in parliament to carry out the tasks that he has been mandated to do. Merely engaging in fruitless debates would be futile unless they give an outlet to the delicate, transient period the politics of the country is passing through. This has been realized by all the stakeholders concerned.

Commendable job

The Department of Passport functioning under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has become the first government agency to be accredited with ISO certificate for its efficiency as per the international standard. The International Organisation for Standardization has accredited the department with the ISO 9001: 2015 certificate for being able to maintain international standards in the preparation, certification and distribution of passports.

It is the matter of pride for the department to be the first government agency to be honoured with the ISO certificate. The Department of Passport has improved its service quality including the issuance of e-passport and online forms that have reduced time and saved money of the service seekers. But the government must reduce the service charge for obtaining the passport and also increase pages of the passport which currently has only 32 pages. The Machine Readable Passport (MRP), introduced by the government as per the international requirement, will no longer be in use after a couple of years to come. So the government must do homework to shift its gear toward biometric passport which will cause inconvenience to the people.