A statement issued by the Ministry of Defense on Wednesday said that such an attempt by a political party would bring additional difficulty in the management of internal security and increases security challenges for the state. [break]
Moreover, the ministry and the Nepal Army (NA) have said that there will be no review of the recruitment process of NA.
"We have no plan at all to review the Army recruitment process," Nabin Ghimire, the defense secretary, told myrepublica.com.
He further said, "Recruitment in the national army is a continuous process which started after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and it is for keeping the army intact for sensitive times."
Highly-placed NA sources too have dismissed all possibilities of reviewing the recruitment process. "There seems no need to review our recruitment process as it is in line with government decision," a highly-placed NA source told myrepublica.com, adding, "It is simple logic for one would need to keep the original number intact."
The Maoist army called for recruitment on Tuesday just a day after NA announced 3,464 vacancies. NA had announced the vacancies following a Supreme Court verdict last week, which stated that the recruitment issue as defined by the CPA does not fall under the apex court´s jurisdiction.
Expressing serious concern over the ´PLA´ announcement, the statement by Ministry of Defense clarified that the latest vacancy announcement in NA is not a new call, rather it is the fifth intake of the same process which begun after the CPA.
Before this, NA opened vacancies on August 23, 2007, and December 21, 2007, and on technical posts it called for applications on April 30 earlier this year, which is now in the final stage. Similarly, NA made another announcement for general category on June 1 in accordance with government decision.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction too has expressed objection to the Maoist army´s recruitment announcement. Issuing a press statement, the ministry requested the Maoist army to abide by past peace agreements and immediately stop all attempts to recruit combatants.
Withdraw recruitment decision: Insec to Maoist army
The Informal Sector Service Center (Insec) has called upon the UCPN (Maoist) to act as a civilian party.
Expressing serious concerns over the press meet called by spokesperson of Maoist army, Chandra Prakash Khanal, on Tuesday, Insec said in a statement on Wednesday that the Maoist party must withdraw the decision of recruitment at once.
Stating that the UCPN (Maoist) has already led the government for nine months after emerging as largest political party in the Constituent Assembly elections and is now in the run to lead the government, Insec has urged the party to responsibly carry out its role to take the peace process to conclusion while adopting the norms and values of a civilian party.
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