Kathmandu, September 16 :

CPN-UML leader Pradip Nepal today demanded that the government work towards finalising issues concerning interim parliament, interim constitution and interim government.

Man Mohan Bhattarai, Nepali Congress (Democratic) leader, said that the Maoist leaders are not clear about their republican agenda. “The Maoists lack right leadership qualities and they do not have a vision,” he said at a programme organised by the Terror Stricken Orphans’ Society Nepal. He was also concerned over the ongoing human rights abuses such as abduction and extortion by the Maoists.

Subodh Pyakurel, chairman of the Informal Sector Service Centre, came down heavily on the Maoists for gross rights violations in the country. The incidents of killing and abduction are on while “90 per cent of the human rights violations are now from the Maoists’ side,” he said.

Who is going to be responsible for such rights abuses? Pyakurel questioned. “Maoist cadres are violating human rights while Maoist leader Prachanda is apologising on their behalf,” he said. It is the government’s responsibility to protect the civilians, he added.