Inseconline.org reports that Nepal Congress
(NC) district vice president, Karna Bahadur
Shahi, 55, a permanent resident of Basi Village
Development Committee (VDC)-3 and staying
at Narayan Municipality-1 in Dailekh District
and other three members of his family were
injured when Communist Party of Nepal-Unified
Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) activists attacked
them on April 15. The CPN-UML affiliated youths
attacked Shahi while he had gone to Basi in
the course of his party affairs.
Moreover, the Supreme Court (SC) on April
17 issued a mandatory order (writ of mandamus)
to the Government and the Bara District Court
directing them to henceforth not withdraw
cases involving “serious crimes” even if they
were of political nature, reports Kantipuronline.
The order issued by a division bench of Justices
Kalyan Shrestha and Gyanendra Bahadur Karki
comes in response to a writ filed in July
2010 against the then Government’s decision
to withdraw a criminal case in 2010.
The apex court quashed the writ stating that
it would be dealt by the Bara District Court
where the case is pending. The apex court
directed the Government to amend provisions
in the Working Procedure and Criteria for
Withdrawing Criminal Cases 1998 to make sure
that the Government does not get the authority
to withdraw cases related to “serious crimes,”
including treason, war crimes, crimes against
humanity and serious human rights abuses
Meanwhile, the number of combatants choosing
voluntary retirement continues to increase,
reports Nepal News. The second round
of regrouping conducted by the Army Integration
Special Committee (AISC) concluded at all
the seven divisions except Kailali on April
17. Altogether 5,800 of the 9,705 former Unified
Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) combatants
who had initially opted for integration into
Nepal Army (NA) chose voluntary retirement
scheme (VRS) during the second round of regrouping
that started at all the PLA divisions on April
8. As of April 17, 3,905 former UCPN-M combatants
seem to be willing to join NA. There are 6,500
openings for UCPN-M combatants in the NA set
by the seven-point agreement signed by the
parties on November 1, 2011.
Additionally, the Constitutional Committee
(CC) of Constituent Assembly (CA) has offered
five more days to the political parties to
resolve the remaining disputes related to
constitution drafting. In response to the
Sub-Committee’s request for additional time
for settling contentious issues, the CC meeting
decided on April 17 to give extra five days
to the parties to arrive at a consensus.
The CC has extended deadline for resolving
all the disputes to April 23 as parties failed
to meet the April 17 deadline. The parties
are yet to reach an understanding on key issues
related to the constitution drafting including
form of the governance, state restructuring,
and electoral system among other. |
