Kathmandu, April 21

Constitutional Lawyers Forum Nepal issued a press release urging the government to withdraw the two ordinance issued by the president yesterday to amend the Political Party Act and Constitutional Council Act.

CLaF-Nepal said its serious attention had been drawn to the promulgation of the two acts as they were promulgated at a time when all the state organs were required to unitedly fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Promulgation of these ordinances do not conform to the rationale of Article 144 (1) of the constitution that provides for the promulgation of ordinances and therefore, these ordinances should be rescinded by the president as per Article 114 (2), CLaF argued.

CLAF-N said the government had violated its constitutional rights by promulgating the ordinances without any rationale and valid reason for them and instead of unitedly fighting COVID-19, the government had paved the way for division in the country.

The organisation said there was risk that the country would have to pay a heavy price for the unconstitutional step taken by the government for its vested political interests.

The government, which was supposed to protect the broader interests of the public, has plunged the country into a vicious cycle of political instability and thus has deviated from its constitutional duty, CLaF Nepal said in its release.

The organisation said that the government would be justified in its attempt to bring an ordinance at this stage only to address the COVID-19 pandemic and not other issues.

It said that the promulgation of the two ordinances had dragged the president into controversy and if the ordinances were implemented they would defeat the spirit of the constitution.

A version of this article appears in print on April 22, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.