According to his personal aide Laxman Dhakal, Koirala has an appointment for a regular follow-up health check-up in New York on June 23. “He will fly back home as soon as possible keeping in view the fluid political situation in the country,” he said. [break]
Dhakal said that preparations are being made for him to return home within 10 days of his departure. Koirala underwent surgery for tongue cancer two years ago. He visits to the US every year for a check-up.
Koirala will be out of the country at a time when the progress in peace process continues to elude even as the parties agreed to a five-point deal reached before the extension of the term of the Constituent Assembly (CA) to conclude ´fundamental tasks´ of peace process within the extended three-month deadline. The Maoists have been remaining absent in the Special Committee meetings.
Likewise, there has been no significant achievement on the front of constitution drafting after the extension of the term of CA.
There has not been any formal talk among the three major parties on constitution drafting and peace process after the extension of the CA term. Though a meeting of the top three leaders was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, the meeting could not take place as Maoist leaders expressed inability to attend the meeting. The meeting was scheduled at the initiative of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal.
According to party leaders, top leaders of three major parties — UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML — are scheduled to hold a meeting on Sunday morning before the departure of Koirala to the US in the afternoon.
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