Deterred by criticisms, govt withdraws ordinances

KATHMANDU: The government has decided to withdraw both the controversial ordinances following criticisms from all quarters.

A cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Baluwatar on Friday decided to withdraw the ordinance on the provision in the Political Party Act and another one related to the Constitutional Council.

These ordinances had been brought and authenticated by the President on April 20. President Bidya Bhandari had authenticated them and they had been published in the national gazette on the same day.

A provision has it that the ordinances can be  scrapped by the President at the recommendation of the the Council of Ministers.

The amendments on the provisions in the Political Party Act had made it easy to split political parties while another ordinance had made it possible to call a meeting of the Constitutional Council without the main opposition party leader’s presence.

PM Oli came under fire for what has been dubbed as ‘inappropriate move’ that came in haste. Party Chariman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, too, had suggested PM Oli to withdraw the ordinance on Thursday morning saying that it would invite complications in the future.

Oli had agreed to withdraw following consultation with the legal experts. But when the ordinances were not withdrawn until Thursday evening, a majority of the NCP Secretariat members piled pressure on Oli to withdraw the controversial ordinances.

The ruling NCP was caught in a quagmire after PM Oli brought the ordinances. Earlier, as many as 20 standing committee members had demanded a meeting of the committee to thrash out the confusion.