UML puts off Standing Committee meet

meeting of the CPN-UML has been deferred after the majority of leaders opposed party Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal's move to appoint controversial former Chief Secretary Lokman Singh Karki as the CIAA chief.

In the meeting, many top UML leaders, including Amrit Kumar Bohara, came down heavily on the party chairman and Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam. "Why you [Bamdev] publicly defended the decision to appoint a person accused of corruption as chief of the anti-graft body?" Bohara questioned immediately after the meeting began.

On Wednesday, Khanal and Gautam had assured of taking initiatives the withdrawal of Karki's name. But emerging from the same day's Standing Committee meeting, Gautam told the reporters that the UML's decision alone was not enough to reject the proposal to recommend Karki as CIAA chief. Khanal and Gautam are the members of the High-level Political Mechanism formed to recommend names of commissioners to be appointed to headless constitutional bodies.

Meanwhile, UML leaders also criticised the party leadership for not stopping influential leader Ram Chandra Jha from quitting the party. Jha, a Politburo member and former in-charge of the UML Janakpur Zonal Committee, resigned from the post on Thursday citing party's unclear position on federalism and ruing lack of responsibility since long.

Former Constituent Assembly member, Jha is believed to have strong hold in some Madhesi constituencies. When UML had lost seats in many Tarai districts in the 2008 CA elections, Jha played an important role to secure six seats from Janakpur zone under his leadership.

The next Standing Committee meeting has been scheduled for Monday.

लेबलहरू: English News