KATHMANDU, March 3: Against the commitment by Prime Minister and Chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the party’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Commander Nanda Kishor Pun has said he will continue with ‘fresh’ recruitment process.
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Pun said the PLA will not accept unfair directives even if they come from the party. “The prime minister must stop recruitment in the NA if he wants the PLA to stop its recruitment,” the PLA commander told journalists on Tuesday.
He said nobody should assume that only the PLA should abide by the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement). “If NA (Nepal Army) violates the CPA by recruiting new personnel, the PLA also reserves the right to recruitment,” he said.
He charged that all political parties and the NA are humiliating the PLA by misinterpreting the CPA.
“Since the CPA has accepted the existence of two armies in the country, PLA reserves the same rights as the NA,” he said.
Stating that the PLA in all its seven main cantonments has started receiving applications for new recruitment from Tuesday, he said the recruitment is for filling 12,311 posts.
The PLA strength before verification by UNMIN was 31,315. Following the verification, the PLA was downsized to 19,602 personnel. UNMIN had disqualified 4,008 combatants including some 2,000 minors while some 8,000 combatants failed to appear during the verification by UNMIN.
Pun said the PLA opened new recruitment for technical positions just like the NA has. “This is not new recruitment and we are filling in the vacant posts,” he said.
He charged that the five political parties including the Unified CPN (Maoist) made a serious mistake by allowing the NA to continue with the recruitment process. “If the state wants to stop PLA recruitment then it must first give clarification for allowing recruitment in the NA,” he said.
Asked if the PLA doesn’t follow the directives from the government and its parent party [Unified CPN (Maoist)], he said the PLA respects the directives of the state. “But the directives should be fair,” he said.
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