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Kathmandu Wednesday February 13, 2002 Falgun 01, 2058.
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NC to seek all-party support
for endorsing emergency
Post Report
KATHMANDU ,Feb 12: The Nepali Congress Central
Working Committee meeting, which concluded Tuesday evening amid intense debate among the
party members, has decided to make an appeal to all the political parties in the country
to help muster the two-thirds’ majority in Parliament for the ratification of
emergency.
The meeting also decided to send a report on
emergency prepared by party General Secretary Sushil Koirala to the government for
necessary action. The decision was arrived at after a sharp debate on the report which
questions government efficiency and blames it for the deteriorating law and order
situation in the country.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, a member
of the 36-strong CWC, Laxman Ghimire, said that some members also called for the
resignation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba citing that he had failed to take the
peace talks to a positive mode. "The members also criticised the PM saying that he
was bypassing the party by registering the proposal for ratification of the emergency in
the parliament without consulting the party," said Ghimire.
However, Minister for Physical Planning and
Works, Chiranjibi Wagle, said that the previous meetings of the party had endorsed the
government move, and it was the government’s prerogative to register the proposal.
"The government has not bypassed the party and did register the proposal with the
party before it was registered at the parliament," he claimed.
When party President Girija Prasad Koirala was
about to go out of the meeting hall, the pro-Deuba members stopped Koirala, saying that he
could not go out without giving a concrete decision on the emergency. Following this, the
decision to seek the support of all political parties for the ratification of emergency,
was made.
When asked about the members’ call for the
PM’s resignation, a serious bone of contention at the meeting, Wagle made it clear
that the matter ought to be taken up at the proper platform and not at the CWC meet.
Minister for Home and Local Development, Khum
Bahadur Khadka, also said that the call for resignation at the CWC meet, did not deserve
any attention.
On the matter of the General Secretary’s
report, the government has been asked to implement it if it is found credible, said Pradip
Giri, a CWC member loyal to PM Deuba.
Party President Koirala asked the members to be
united in this grim hour for the country, and said that his concept of a broader
democratic alliance was the only way out of the present problems dogging the country.
But as expected, the party did not take any
decision on Koirala’s much-touted concept.
Koirala also urged the government to withdraw
the emergency at the earliest, saying that it was a regressive step in a democratic
system.
Sailaja Acharya, a detractor of PM Deuba, after
the meeting, told that she had sought the withdrawal of emergency, and had also made it
clear that there was no need for declaring emergency to mobilize the army.
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