During a meeting held at the prime minister´s residence Sunday morning, Dahal expressed his displeasure over slow progress in the implementation of the agreement and sought the prime minister´s view on future of the agreement. Consequently the meeting ended inconclusively.
“The prime minister has been slow in implementing the seven-point agreement. Neither did he appoint home minister from our party nor took any initiative to form a high-level political mechanism,” a source close to Dahal told Republica. [break]
The prime minister had planned to give his cabinet a full shape by appointing ministers from his own party, if the Maoists did not give names of would-be ministers from their party.
“The prime minister did not expand his cabinet on Sunday as the leaders reached an understanding to expand it on the basis of consensus,” said Prime Minister´s Press Advisor Surya Thapa.
Maoist Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha said the prime minister had assured them that he would decide on Sunday when he was going to give them the home portfolio. “We decided to give him a couple of days more as he could not take the decision,” Shrestha said, adding that the prime minister told Dahal that he wanted to keep the home ministry for himself for the time being.
According sources close to Khanal, the prime minister clearly told Dahal that he would not give home portfolio to the Maoists until there is substantive progress in the peace process. Senior leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Oli from the prime minister´s party have maintained that the former rebels should not be given any security-related ministries.
Khanal told Dahal that he could not give the Maoists the home portfolio as he was facing opposition from his party. In response, Dahal said he would not give up the home portfolio.
The scheduled meeting of the standing committee of the UCPN (M) was cancelled after the talks between Khanal and Dahal could not yield results, said Shrestha.
UML politburo member Surendra Pande said internal conflicts within the two parties had played a spoilsport. He added that the talks with Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) on power sharing is yet to take place.
“It is not still clear how many ministries we will get,” said MPRF Chairman Upendra Yadav.
Maoists, UML form taskforce
KATHMANDU: Ruling UCPN (Maoist) and the CPN-UML have formed an eight-member taskforce to prepare common minimum program of the coalition government and code of conduct for ministers and to draft terms of reference of the proposed high-level political mechanism envisioned to oversee functioning of the government.
The taskforce has been given two days to complete the assignment, according to Maoist Vice chairman Narayankaji Shrestha, who is also a member of the taskforce. [break]
Surendra Pandey, a taskforce member, said the taskforce has asked taskforce members Dev Gurung and Bhim Rawal to draft the common minimum program, the code of conduct and terms of reference of the proposed high-level mechanism before by Monday.
The taskforce has four members each from the ruling UCPN (Maoist) and CPN-UML. Shrestha, Gurung, Post Bahadur Bogati and Dinanath Sharma represent the Maoist party while Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Rawal, Pandey and Bhim Acharya represent the CPN-UML.
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