Kathmandu, November 22:

The crucial meeting of the CPN-UML central committee gets underway tomorrow, amid initial indications that the party may come down heavily on a host of issues related to the functioning of the government and the peace agreement signed between the government and the Maoists yesterday.

The dissatisfaction of the UML leadership with the performance of the Girija Prasad Koirala-led seven-party alliance government had become public following criticism from its General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal.

“The prime agenda of course is the review of the government’s performance, which has failed to live up to the expectation of the coalition partners. We have felt that it has not upheld the spirit of the mass uprising. The performance is not at all good,” said CPN-UML central leader Jhala Nath Khanal while enumerating agendas of the central committee meeting. Yet another agenda is to evolve the official stance of the party on how to go about while implementing the understanding reached with the Maoists.

“We look forward to come up with details of what, for example, comprehensive land reforms should mean. Simply swearing by land reforms will not take us anywhere. We need the desired details and we will come up with that,” Khanal said, enumerating one of the agendas of the peace that can be interpreted differently.

The party will decide whether or not to join the interim government. General Secretary Nepal has been speaking against the idea of joining the government. Nepal’s viewpoint has attracted adverse reaction from PM Koirala, who recently said, “The future changes cannot be stopped even if any party stays out of power.” Undoubtedly, what the UML decides in the next few days will go a long way in shaping the political turn of events through the interim phase.