The 12-member body is now only a step away from getting a final shape as it is yet to get the name of a PLA representative as per a September 17 decision of the Special Committee, a constitutional body formed to carry out integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants. [break]
However, Peace and Reconstruction Minister Rakam Chemjong said the secretariat will start working from Wednesday even if the PLA does not send its representative by then.
“Though the PLA is yet to name its representative in the secretariat, the body will be operational from Wednesday as there are already two Maoist members in the secretariat,” Chemjong told Republica, who is an invitee member of the Special Committee.
Naming of Sharma as the head of the secretariat, which will work under the Special Committee, has ended the nine-month long controversy over who should coordinate the 12-member body. The Special Committee had earlier decided to designate the coordinator in January this year but could not as both the Maoists and the other ruling parties staked claim for the post.
The effort was again revived in mid-September, when the ongoing peace process gained momentum after more than a year of stagnancy. But the effort could not yield any result due to contesting claims for the post. The Maoists wanted PLA Deputy Commander Nanda Kishor Pun to head the secretariat while NC and CPN-UML had chosen Sharma.
While proposing Pun as the head of the secretariat, the Maoists had argued that designating coordinator from their party would be a sort of symbolic PLA representation which would facilitate the proposed integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants.
But NC and UML wanted Sharma as the coordinator he has the expertise in security affairs and peace keeping. Besides being a former lieutenant general of the Nepal Army, he had served the force commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in Golan Height from January 2004 to January 2007.
But, Maoist representative in the committee Barsha Man Pun proposed Sharma´s name as the coordinator, at the very outset of the meeting on Tuesday morning and the Special Committee endorsed the nomination, according to Janardan Sharma, another Maoist representative in the committee.
“We want to see the process move forward,” said Sharma when asked about why the Maoists dropped their claim for the leadership of the secretariat.
Minister Chemjong said Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had agreed to endorse Sharma´s name before the Special Committee meeting.
The Special Committee, however, rejected another Maoist proposal to have a co-coordinator from their party in the secretariat following strong opposition from the prime minister, who is also the head of the Committee.
Meanwhile, Sharma said the PLA would send another representative instead of Nanda Kishor Pun in the secretariat. “We were supposed to send him [Pun] to represent the PLA in the secretariat, hoping he will be designated as coordinator.”
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