PM slams Dahal-Nepal faction’s ‘lie’

KATHMANDU, JANUARY 16

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli slammed the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar for spreading the rumour that he had met four justices of the Supreme Court.

Addressing a gathering of his faction’s Province 1 chapter cadres in Kathmandu, PM Oli said he had once seen Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla at a programme but that was when she was just a lawyer. The PM said he never met any justices of the Supreme Court and probably did not even recognise them.

Without naming the Dahal-Nepal faction leader Shashi Shrestha, who had told the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court yesterday that there were media reports of some SC justices meeting the PM recently, the PM said, “They are telling the court that some justices met the PM.

How can they make such a false claim? This is a serious attack on the independence of the judiciary,” the PM said. The PM also said that he, as PM, had the prerogative to dissolve the HoR and he had quoted the Articles of the constitution in his letter to the president wherein he recommended dissolution of the HoR.

“The Cabinet says in its decision that it wants to dissolve the HoR as per the constitution and nothing more was required to be mentioned in the Cabinet decision,” the PM said, and added that he alone, and not the Cabinet, could recommend dissolution, but he had decided to take the issue to the Cabinet as he wanted to do everything transparently.

The PM said he dissolved the HoR as per Article 76 (1), 76 (7), and 85, ‘our own parliamentary tradition and the tradition of other parliamentary democracies’ and the same thing was mentioned in the press release issued by the President’s Office.

He said rival faction leaders had violated all rules of discipline in criticising him without taking into account his status as the party’s co-chair.

PM Oli said Pushpa Kamal Dahal was now claiming his faction as the authentic NCP with the Sun election symbol, even though he had never contested election with the Sun as symbol. He further informed that it was Dahal, who had backed off from an agreement with the erstwhile CPN-UML to contest election with just the Sun symbol in the last federal and provincial elections. “If Dahal wants Sun as election symbol, he should come to attend our Central Committee meeting,” the PM said. He said Dahal and leaders associated with that faction were trying to ruin the country, but he would not allow their mission to succeed.

The PM said no force could derail the political gains achieved from the great sacrifices of the people.

Rival faction leaders are scared of election because they know that people will punish them for all the bad things they have done.

This is the only reason rival faction leaders are not ready to take part in the election.

Subas Chandra Nembang told the meeting he was not speaking about dissolution of the HoR since it was sub-judice in the Supreme Court. Nembang — who has been criticised in the media for saying in the past that the PM cannot dissolve the HoR on the basis of whims — is now supporting the PM’s move to dissolve the HoR — said, “The present context is different. The PM has cited some reasons for dissolving the HoR. He has said he wants to take fresh mandate as his own party has created obstacle in running his government. People are the ultimate power and they will judge his action.”

 

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