 |
Kathmandu Wednesday August 08, 2001 Shrawan 24, 2058.
|
House rejects proposals to
annul Ordinances
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Aug 7 – Amidst boycott and
slogan shouting by the opposition, the House of Representatives today rejected the
opposition proposals to annul the Armed police Force and Local Administration (4th
Amendment) Ordinances, clearing the way for the replacement of the controversial
Ordinances by Bills to be tabled and discussed in the House.
While the main opposition CPN-UML boycotted the
proceedings once the ordinances were taken up for discussion, other parties – the
NPF, the UPF and the NPWP – shouted slogans against the ordinances near the
"Well of the House" (rostrum). Dr P C Lohani of the RPP, who initiated the
proposal to annul the APF, too joined the rest of the opposition once the proposal was
tabled. Even the NSP objected to the ordinances, agreeing with the rest of opposition that
the manner in which the ordinances were promulgated was against the Constitution.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba made
an impassioned plea to the opposition to help the government pass the ordinances, since
the opposition parties were protesting the way the ordinances were promulgated and not
necessarily its content. Urging the opposition to consider the circumstances in which the
ordinances were tabled, Deuba tried to assure the opposition that the government would
take them into confidence, should such circumstance arise in the future.
Deuba also told the opposition members that the
government would try to accommodate the opposition’s views when the discussion on the
Bills is held in the House.
However, the Prime Minister was quick to add
that the government believed in talks with the Maoists to resolve the insurgency. "We
are honestly and sincerely committed to dialogue with the Maoists," he said, and
added that the Maoists would understand the government’s practical difficulty in
turning the ordinances into Bills.
The last government, led by former PM Girija
Prasad Koirala, had not only appointed the policemen into the new armed police force, but
also appointed the then Additional Inspector General of Police (AIGP) as the chief of the
new unit. The government had also appointed the five Kshetrapal (the Regional
Administrators) for the five development regions under the Local Administration ordinance.
Now, if the ordinances are not converted into
Bills within the next 16 days, both the ordinances would cease to exist and all the
organizational set up and other arrangements under the two ordinances would also
automatically become void. The Bills to replace the ordinances must be passed by the House
on or before August 23 when the current session of the parliament completes 60 days since
its commencement.
However, at today’s session, Subhas
Nemwang, UML lawmaker objected to the ordinances being taken up for discussion at all.
"We had hoped that the new government would withdraw the Bill but it
didn’t," he said, and questioned Deuba’s contention that the government was
ready to accommodate the opposition parties’ views during the debate on Bills in the
parliament. "How can it be done in such a short span of time?" he questioned.
Terming the promulgation of the ordinances just
two days before the commencement of the last session of the parliament as illegitimate,
the UML lawmaker declared that his party was boycotting the entire process dealing with
the ordinances and led his partymen out.
Then, one by one, leaders of the other
opposition parties objected the debate on the ordinances and demanded their withdrawal.
However when the Speaker went ahead with the process, the minor parties went to the
"Well of the House" and started shouting slogans against what they termed a
"black law". They sat down near the rostrum when Dr Lohani of RPP started
reading his party’s objection amidst the shouting of the agitating members.
A majority voice vote defeated Dr Lohani’s
proposal to annul the APF ordinance. The proposal to annul the ordinance dealing with the
regional administrators was rejected as Lilamani Pokharel, who was then shouting slogans
against the APF, did not table his proposal.
Other Stories
|
