Miscellaneous
CIAA chief had gone too far, difficult to save him: Deuba
A day after the conspicuous absence of the Nepali Congress (NC) in the impeachment process against Lokman Singh Karki moved by the governing CPN (Maoist Centre) and the main opposition CPN-UML, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba said on Thursday that he was not aware of the two parties’ plan of registering the proposal.Sarin Ghimire
A day after the conspicuous absence of the Nepali Congress (NC) in the impeachment process against Lokman Singh Karki moved by the governing CPN (Maoist Centre) and the main opposition CPN-UML, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba said on Thursday that he was not aware of the two parties’ plan of registering the proposal.
“UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli had invited me and the prime minister on Wednesday for talks. I thought he wanted to discuss local level restructuring. But, he suddenly suggested that an impeachment motion needed to be filed against Lokmanji,” Minister for Health Gagan Thapa quoted Deuba as saying at the party’s Central Working Committee meeting on Thursday. “I had told him that I would first discuss the matter within the party, but an impeachment motion was already tabled.”
He, however, added that it would be difficult for the party to go against the impeachment proposal as “Karki had gone too far, farther than the king” when it came to his working style.
Deuba also said that Karki had failed to pay heed to his repeated calls to mend ways. “The working style of the CIAA chief reminded me of the autocratic Royal Commission during the former king Gyanendra Shah’s regime.” When the NC said on Wednesday that the impeachment motion was moved without consulting the party, questions had surfaced over the relationship between the two coalition partners. “This certainly raises questions over the kind of understanding the two coalition partners share,” said Thapa. Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi said Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had told “us that he himself was unaware of his party’s sitting ministers being among the signatories of the motion”.
Former general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula urged the party chief to immediately take a decision on the issue.
'The working style of the CIAA chief reminds me of the autocratic Royal Commission during the former king Gyanendra Shah’s regime'
- Sher Bahadur Deuba
“It is very difficult to save the CIAA chief since his activities were directly affecting the judicial process,” a leader quoted Sitaula as saying.
Minister Thapa said, “Three major parties must acknowledge that appointing Karki as the chief of such a crucial constitutional body was a mistake. As the largest and oldest party, the NC will have to stand by this truth and relieve him of his office.”
According to Thapa, Deuba has urged everyone to speak their mind before the party takes an official decision on the matter.