Kathmandu, August 22, 2007

The appointment of secretaries which was expected to be pushed through the interim cabinet, was delayed today following differences over the same and continued failure on the part of the cabinet group to sort it out till late tonight.

The Administrative Committee of the cabinet, which is headed by Minister of General Administration Ram Chandra Yadav, failed to finalise 27 names after sifting through the 81 probables. The cabinet did not meet today as the Administrative Committee could not finish its job. “We are working on it. We are trying to finish it and chances are we could hopefully present the final names tomorrow following a meeting in the morning,” said Minister of General Administration, Ram Chandra Yadav, who heads the Administrative Committee.

He admitted that since the issue of picking future secretaries is a contentious one given the coalition nature of the government, differences were natural. “The list is not yet final. In fact, it cannot be final at least until one more meeting which will be convened tomorrow morning,” Yadav told The Himalayan Times following a meeting late today.

He also pointed out the possibility of the task of appointing secretaries getting further delayed by a day or two, just in the event the issue fails to be sorted out by tomorrow’s meeting.

FM miffed at PM Koirala over failure to appoint envoys

Kathmandu, August 22, 2007

Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan is miffed at Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for not being able to resolve the issue of ambassadorial appointments.

Asked to react on the issue, Foreign Minister Pradhan sounded irritated. “I know nothing about the latest developments. It’s my job to tell the prime minister, and I have already done my part,” she said.

Some 12 ambassadorial positions have been vacant for more than one year after the king-appointed ambassadors were recalled by the post-Andolan government headed by Koirala. Four positions are in the newly established missions. “The meeting yesterday concluded that the issue of ambassadors’ appointment has to be settled by the eight parties,” said Giri Raj Mani Pokhrel, State Minister for Health.

There is intense pressure from the international community to depute Nepalese ambassadors in 16 world capitals, but the eight-party government has been unable to proceed on making appointments.

CP Gajurel, who heads the CPN-Maoists’ Foreign Desk, however, said the NC and CPN-UML never consulted the Maoists while dividing the world capitals. After internally distributing the ambassadorial seats among themselves, the NC and UML offered us to send our nominees for newly established embassies in Australia, and France, Belgium and South Korea.