KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 21
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held here today decided to recall Nepal's non-career ambassadors (political nominees) from foreign missions.
Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Gyanendra Bahadur Karki told mediapersons that the Cabinet decided to recall 'political ambassadors' from foreign missions.
This decision of Sher Bahadur Deuba would affect Nepal's Ambassadors to the US, Japan, Qatar, Oman, Spain, China, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, Bangladesh, and India.
Nepal's Ambassador to Oman Sarmila Parajuli Dhakal and Nepal's Ambassador to Japan Pratibha Rana were appointed by the Pushpa Kamal Dahal government.
Ambassadors in other nine countries were appointed by the KP Sharma Oli government.
It is yet to be seen if the decision will also affect Nepal's Ambassador to the United Kingdom Lokdarshan Regmi.
Regmi is a former chief secretary who was appointed Nepal's Ambassador to the UK by the KP Sharma Oli government. Nepal has appointed 33 ambassadors in foreign missions, including 30 countries and three United Nation's missions. Nepal appoints seven Consular Generals in seven consular missions, out of which four are in China alone.
UML leader Rajan Bhattarai said the government should give reasons why it has recalled these ambassadors.
If the government has found that these ambassadors have not performed well, it must say so, otherwise, it should not recall ambassadors just because they were appointed by the past governments," he added.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 22 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
