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Kathmandu Friday February 22, 2002 Falgun 10, 2058.
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Parliament ratifies Emergency
Overwhelming support from opposition, Yea 194, Nay 7
By Surendra Phuyal
KATHMANDU, Feb 21: Spurred on by Prime Minister
Sher Bahadur Deuba’s pledge to carry out constitutional and socio-economic reforms,
the House of Representatives on Thursday ratified the motion on the state of emergency,
extending it for three more months.
After days of intense discussions over the
emergency which stretched till Thursday afternoon, when the crucial hour of voting came
this evening, 194 parliamentarians voted in favour of the motion, while seven voted
against it. This is more than the two-thirds majority required to ratify the emergency
rule, according to Article 115 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990.
Soon after the voting began at around 7:25 p.m.,
all the members of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC), the main opposition Communist Party of
Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and
the Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) cast their yea votes supporting the motion. But members
of the United People’s Front (UPF), the Nepal People’s Front (NPF) and the Nepal
Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) cast their nay votes.
Three members—Minister for Population and
Environment PL Singh and Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperatives Laxman Prasad
Mehta of the ruling NC, and Ajay Pratap Shah of RPP—were absent during the voting.
They are said to be outside the country.
"The overwhelming support extended to us by
the opposition parties has boosted the morale of our security forces," an exhilarated
Deuba later told reporters outside the parliament building. "Now, we will move ahead
together, so that we can amend the constitution in a way that is agreeable to all the
opposition parties."
The state of emergency was imposed in the
country on November 26, 2001, two days after Maoist rebels launched a surprise attack on a
Royal Nepal Army garrison in Dang in the mid-western hills, killing over two dozen
security personnel.
Deuba’s mentor and former prime minister
Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was in a thankful mood. "It is the same support from them
that helped us restore the democratic polity in 1990, now their support will help us
protect democracy," he said. The greying veteran leader would not make any comments
on the opposition parties’ and his fellow Congressman Girija Prasad Koirala’s
wish to go for constitutional reforms.
Minutes before the voting began, Prime Minister
Deuba pledged necessary steps towards constitutional reforms, and sweeping socio-economic
reforms which include agendas such as empowerment of women and backward communities,
corruption control and administrative and legal reforms. All this would be done within the
ongoing session, he pledged.
His announcement, welcomed by all, came
two-and-half hours after the House was temporarily adjourned at around 4:15 p.m. During
the time, Prime Minister Deuba, former prime minister Koirala and the UML leader Madhav
Kumar Nepal held a closed door meeting inside Deuba’s office.
Sources in Singha Durbar said that the draft of
the Prime Minister’s speech was finalized only after Koirala and Nepal endorsed it.
Earlier, the main opposition leader speaking in
the jam-packed House flayed successive NC governments for failing to implement past
accords, and asked Deuba to spell out the process and date for constitutional reforms—a
condition, which also got the support of Koirala.
"We should be able to amend the
constitution massively," Nepal said, pointing out the need to give more power to the
prime minister, and form an all-party government that could hold general elections. At the
same time "there is also a need for programmes to uplift the status of the backward,
poor and marginalized people," he said.
But he also blasted the government for
"unnecessarily" imposing emergency in the country, and asserted that the
"army could have been mobilized without doing so". Nepal also spoke at length on
the "negative impacts" of extending emergency, and called on the Maoist
leadership to shun violence and join mainstream politics.
"Neither side will win the war, it will be
the nation that will lose the war at the end," Nepal cautioned the Maoists. "It
will be the people who will lose, and it will be our independence that will lose out. So
Maoists, come forward and let’s do what we can together. The CPN-UML is ready."
NC President Koirala backed the main opposition’s
demand for constitutional reforms, and expressed his party’s commitment to it. He
also emphasized the need to forge a broader democratic alliance among all the political
parties and "strengthening of prime ministerial process", while calling on the
government to crack down on corruption.
"All the illegal property amassed by
politicians should be taken back by the state, and this has to start from the Nepali
Congress," he said amidst applause from a few of the lawmakers at the back benches of
the treasury side. He also said that special package programmes for the victims of terror
be unveiled as soon as possible.
The next session of the House is due on Tuesday
morning.
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