Prez did the right thing: Deuba

LALITPUR: Nepali Congress senior leader and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Monday claimed that the interim constitution had mandated the President to correct the mistakes of the Prime Minister.

"The Constitution has provisioned bodies that maintain checks and balances in exercising state powers. The President's move to retain Chief of Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal after the government had sacked him was intended to save the nation from a great disaster. The head of the state's action is constitutional," Deuba said, addressing a programme organised by the Martyrs' Academy. He urged the Unified CPN-Maoist to wait for the court's decision on the issue.

CPN-UML vice president Bidhya Bhandari said the President's move was bold and historical. She said the national army and the Maoist combatants could not be treated on the same footing. "The Maoists had tried to impose autocracy by taking the state organs into their grip. But the President prevented it," she said.