Legal lumanaries laud Prez move

KATHMANDU: At a time when the Unified CPN-Maoist is protesting against President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s move to retain Chief of Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal, law experts have lauded the President for his bold move.

Speaking at an interaction on ‘Present Political Situation and Constitutional Outlet’ organised by the Nepal Students’ Union here today, law expert and senior advocate Harihar Dahal clarified that the President had rescued the Interim Constitution which the Maoists were trying to confine to a trash bin. “The Maoists need to abide by the basic principles of law and order if they really want to establish civilian supremacy,” he said, adding, “Clearing the way for the formation of UML-led majority government is the only way out of the current political impasse.”

Another senior advocate and CA member Radheshyam Adhikari accused the Maoists of misguiding the world in the name of advocating for civilian supremacy. “Maoists are misleading people. We always enjoyed civilian supremacy here,” he said.

Advocate Tikaram Bhattarai said Nepal might turn into a military battleground if the political parties failed to do their bit to find constitutional and democratic solution to the impasse. “The Maoists are to be held responsible for this political impasse,” he added. He added that the President was the patron of the constitution as per Article 36 and that he took the decision to reinstate Katawal in his capacity as Supreme Commander of Nepali Army.

Another advocate Sher Bahadur KC claimed that the Maoists had been finally isolated, as they had made an unsuccessful attempt to impose one-party system in the country. “Though Maoists are still enjoying state power, they are launching protests in the House and the streets in the name of establishing civilian supremacy,” he said, adding that the days of Maoists were numbered.

NSU president Pradeep Poudel alleged that the Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal himself was a big hurdle in the attempts to find a way out of the present impasse. “Maoist lawmakers are continuing to disrupt the House proceedings, defying their leaders’ long commitment to let the House business run and pave the way for the formation of the new government,” he said.

Poudel also called upon all democratic forces to wage a fresh round of people’s movement to tackle Maoist totalitarianism.