Kathmandu, April 20

Chief Whip of Nepali Congress Bal Krishna Khand told THT that the prime minister’s move to bring the ordinances showed the PM’s priorities were misplaced. “We are dealing with the threat of COVID-19 pandemic. This is not the time to think about political issues. The PM should only think about unitedly fighting the pandemic. These ordinances were not necessary from any standpoint — socially or politically,” he added.

Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna said the decision to bring ordinance to amend the provisions of the Political Party Act was wrong mainly because the development happened at a time when the entire country was focusing its efforts to stem the threat of COVID-19. He said if a party’s split was allowed to happen with the support of 40 per cent office bearers of the central committee or 40 per cent lawmakers of its parliamentary party, then many parties could suffer splits, destabilising the political system.

Advocate Pankaj Kumar Karna said the government, which was supposed to focus all its efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, brought an ordinance to engineer splits in parties.   He said the constitution prevented parties from bringing no-trust motion against the PM for the first two years with the aim of bringing political stability in the country and the government’s move to make it easy for dissidents in a party to split it was against the spirit of the constitution.

A version of this article appears in print on April 21, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.