Sat deadline to form new Nepal govt

With a Saturday deadline to form the government, Nepal’s squabbling political parties met on Tuesday to try and stitch together a replacement for the Maoist-led coalition headed by Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda.

President Ram Baran Yadav has given political parties until Saturday to put a new political formation.

The Maoists were not present at the all-party meeting called to review the crisis triggered by the standoff between the army and the former rebels, leading to Dahal’s dramatic resignation on Monday.

The new government is likely to be led by Madhav Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist).

Backed by the international community, New Delhi is going out of its way to ensure that the Maoists do not walk out of the peace process and shatter the fragile peace. Till now, Dahal has given no indication that he and his men will again pick up arms.

But the Maoists have made it clear that they will not allow Parliament to function until president Yadav tenders an apology. He had ordered army chief general Rookmangud Katawal to continue even after Dahal sacked him.

The stalemate will continue as long as the problem of integration of Maoist cadres into the army, opposed by the general and most senior commanders, remains unresolved.
Meanwhile, Nepal’s Supreme Court, on a plea filed by an NGO, on Tuesday issued a notice to the presidential secretariat, asking it to reply within 10 days why the president reinstated the army chief after he was sacked by the PM.