Kathmandu, June 29, 2007

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today assured Maoist chairman Prachanda that the government would consider renomination of ambassadors on the basis of an eight-party consensus.

Prachanda asked Koirala to make renominations so that the Maoist-nominated people get foreign missions in countries that are considered as having strategic interests. The meeting between the two took place following the Maoist lawmakers’ refusal to proceed for parliamentary hearing on the nominations.

The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee (PHSC) yesterday could not take a decision on whether to begin the hearing procedures after lawmakers Dina Nath Sharma and Khim Lal Devkota protested. They prevented tabling the nomination at PHSC and refused even to discuss the nomination-list sent by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

“The Prime Minister has promised that the nomination for the post of ambassadors should reach a conclusion as per an eight-party consensus,” said Amod Prasad Upadhaya, senior member of PHSC. Upadhaya, who chairs the PHSC meetings as a senior member, together with Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang met Koirala this morning to apprise the later of the Maoist lawmakers’ concerns on the nomination for ambassadors.

The government on June 25 had sent the nomination-list to PHSC for parliamentary hearing. Except for replacing Bhagirath Basnet by Murari Raj Sharma to be appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom, the interim government sent the same nominations.

NC to push for republic in CA polls, says Paudel

Kathmandu, June 29, 2007

Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ramchandra Paudel today said the Nepali Congress will champion a republic in the constituent assembly election.

“Our party’s agenda will be a democratic republic. We will call either a congress or general assembly meeting to make our formal line public,” he said, addressing a mass meeting of the NC-affiliated Nepal Students Union.

He also said that the first meeting of the constituent assembly would certainly oust the monarchy, that the Nepal Army was no longer attached to the royal palace and that it had become totally sincere to the state and the people.

Student leader Gagan Thapa said that the eightparty alliance should let the youth factions work in full swing in all villages to educate the people on a constituent assembly. He said the NC leadership should be bold enough to openly say “yes” to a republican agenda and that a majority of the student activists of the party has already voted for it. PM Koirala was supposed to address the meet, but he did not. The organisers said he stayed away due to health reasons.