UML not to attend Sunday’s all-party meeting

KATHMANDU: The CPN-UML will not attend an all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for Sunday.

UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel said that the UML would not participate in the all-party meeting as the CPN-Unified Socialist (CPN-US) would be there. “We will not attend any meeting where parties that are not recognized by the UML are present,” he said.

Meanwhile, PM Deuba has called the all-party meeting to discuss UML’s obstruction of parliament and moving forward United States grant Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project, among other issues. The next meeting of the parliament is set for Tuesday and the government plans to move forward MCC in the parliament.

The UML has been obstructing the parliament for a long over Speaker Agni Sapkota’s decision of refusing to dismiss lawmakers that defected from the UML to the CPN-US. The main opposition demands the dismissal of 14 lawmakers of the CPN-US.

The main opposition party had not attended all-party meetings in the recent past as well.