- Defense Minister approves brigadiers´ term extension
- Emergency cabinet meeting likely today
- 13-year old precedent of IGP Kharel to be invoked
- Secretary Neupane gets responsibility
On Sunday, Defense Minister Bidya Devi Bhandari approved a proposal from army chief Rookmangud Katwal seeking job extension of the brigadier generals, a Defense Ministry source told myrepublica.com. Now the proposal needs approval by the cabinet. An emergency cabinet meeting is likely to be called for Monday.
If approved by the cabinet the generals´ terms will be extended by three years.
The retirement, which dominated the political scene in March this year, is one of the issues that troubled army-Maoist relations when the former rebels were in the government.
In a controversial decision in March, the Moist-led government had pensioned off brigadier generals Nara Bahadur Kandel, Narendra Bahadur Rawal, Kumar Budhathoki, Pawan Bahadur Pandey, Pradip Bikram Rana, Shiva Kumar Poudel, Ramesh Bista and Raju Pratap KC.
Before approving Katawal´s request, Minister Bhandari had consulted lawyers, including Deputy Attorney General Pushpa Raj Koirala and Brigadier General BA Kumar Sharma, the legal chief of the Nepal Army.
Sources said that the cabinet, while revoking the Maoist-led government decision on brigadiers´ term, is going to invoke a 13-year old precedent relating to the then Inspector General of Police Achyut Krishna Kharel.
The CPN-UML government had dismissed Kharel in April 1997. But later, the decision was revoked when the CPN-UML government stepped down. When he was reinstated, Kharel was fighting a lawsuit at the Supreme Court.
The brigadiers´ cases are currently sub judice. The court was scheduled to hold a hearing on Sunday but was postponed upon the request of the Office of the Attorney General (AG). Earlier, the Defense Ministry had asked the AG office to write to the court to put off the hearing in view of the government decision to review the previous government´s decision on the retirement row.
The brigadiers had moved the court a week after they were pensioned off. But they continued their job following a stay order by the Supreme Court on March 25. The Maoist had even taken to the street against the court order, burning the judges in effigy.
The Maoist-led government had given no reason while retiring the generals although Katawal had recommended service extension. But last week, the army chief again asked the government to extend the generals´ service.
Secretary Neupane gets responsibility
The retirement row had cost the job of the then Defense Secretary Baman Prasad Neupane. The Maoist-led government had deprived him of official responsibility by transferring him to the reserve pool at the Ministry of General Administration. He was accused of mentioning a wrong date in the retirement letters handed to the brigadiers. The wrong date was the main basis for the Supreme Court to stay the retirement of the army officers on March 24. The secretary was also warned in writing for the mistake.
According to a source at the Office of the Prime Minister, Neupane has been posted at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
kiran@myrepublica.com