NULLIFICATION OF NCP UNIFICATION
KATHMANDU, MARCH 8
The Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal is likely to file a review petition against the Supreme Court's verdict that nullified the unification of the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre to form NCP (NCP), claiming that the SC had erred while passing the verdict.
NCP Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said the SC verdict was wrong, unnatural, and politically prejudiced because it gave remedy on the question (nullification of the unity between the CPN-UML and CPN-MC) that the plaintiff had not asked. "We disagree with the court verdict dividing a unified party," Shrestha said. He added that they would seek political and legal remedies to the problems caused by the SC verdict.
He said the SC verdict had left many questions unanswered, particularly the one about lawmakers and local representatives that were elected on NCP (NCP) tickets.
"The SC verdict that has asked a unified party to split into separate parties cannot be justified on any ground," Shrestha said.
Shrestha said revival of CPN- UML and CPN-MC as independent parties would come into effect only after the Election Commission completed the process.
He added that today's meeting of the NCP Standing Committee was perhaps the last meeting of the party.
Moreover, CPN-Maoist Centre lawmakers Ram Bahadur Thapa, Prabhu Shah, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, and Lekhraj Bhatta are with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli now and are also members of his Cabinet.
Similarly, UML leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, and many others are with Dahal.
Shrestha said party leaders were of the view that the CPN- UML and the CPN-MC had unified to achieve the goals of socialism oriented democracy and social justice. Shrestha said party leaders would continue to promote unification of communist forces.
He said Prime Minister Oli, who was expected to resign on moral grounds after the Supreme Court termed his move dissolving the House of Representatives unconstitutional, had an obligation to resign now after yesterday's SC verdict. He said his party's leaders would decide on withdrawing support to the prime minister after discussing the matter with other parties.
In response to a journalist's query, Shrestha said, "Court is no god. Judges can make mistakes and those mistakes need to be corrected." He, however, added that the court's decisions were implemented.
Earlier, NCP (NCP) Standing Committee member Raghuji Panta and some other Standing Committee members told the meeting that party leaders should try their best to keep party unity intact and Pushpa Kamal Dahal and KP Sharma Oli should discuss the issue. He said party unity was important to protect the constitution, democracy, independence and sovereignty.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 09, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
