PLA suspends recruitment process but it's conditional

KATHMANDU, March 10: The Maoist People´s Liberation Army (PLA) has decided to suspend the recruitment process, a press statement issued by PLA commander, Nanda Kishor Pun on Tuesday said. [break]



In his press release, Pun said that the PLA took the decision in view of the recent Supreme Court order to stay the recruitment "in both the PLA and the Nepal Army" as well as the instruction of the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) to the "two armies" to stop the recruitment.



While the last decision of the apex court was divided in its opinion on the Nepal Army´s recruitment, the AISC has only asked the PLA to stop the recruitment.



Pun had announced, on March 2, that the PLA would start the recruitment on March 3. All the seven main cantonments, where the PLA combatants are sequestered, had called for fresh applications to fill about 12,000 positions that fell vacant after the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) disqualified them in a verification process agreed by the Maoists and all major political parties.



Tuesday´s statement said the PLA decided to suspend the "remainder" of the process to respect the order from the government and the AISC to stop the recruitment process of "both the PLA and the Nepal Army".



The statement is also silent on whether the PLA would recruit those who have already applied for recruitment in all its seven main cantonments´ headquarters.



Myrepublica.com´s attempt to contact PLA commander Pun for clarification over these issues did not succeed.



However, PLA division commander of Shaktikhor cantonment in Chitwan, Kali Bahadur Kham said, "The PLA won´t cancel the applications that it has received so far for recruitment."



He said the spirit of the statement is that it has only suspended further recruitment to respect the order from the government and the AISC. "If the Supreme Court allows recruitment process in Nepal Army, we will also resume it," Kham said. "We are just waiting for judicious decision from the court."



The apex court on February 22 had told the army to stop its recruitment process until March 1. A division bench of Justices Balram KC and Abdesh Kumar Yadav was divided in its opinion on whether to continue the January 22 stay order against the Nepal Army recruitment or scrap it. The bench, on March 3, referred the case to a larger bench which is expected to hold a hearing on March 12.



On Sunday, a meeting of the AISC chaired by Prime Minister and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal directed the PLA to stop its recruitment drive with immediate effect. The AISC instruction came hours after the Supreme Court´s order to stay the recruitment in the PLA.



ghanashyam@myrepublica.com

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