Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba Friday was busy holding series of meetings with the leaders of both the ruling and main opposition parties in a bid to reach a consensus to endorse the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact from the House of Representatives on Sunday.
The Prime Minister has been consulting several leaders to pass the MCC compact since Thursday afternoon after deferring the meeting of the House of Representatives. He gave continuity to consultations also on Friday.
He held a meeting with CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli reaching the latter’s residence in Balkot, Bhaktapur, Friday evening.
Prime Minister Deuba reached Balkot with party vice chairman Purna Bahadur Khadka, general secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki after CPN-UML chair returned to Kathmandu after attending a party programme in Pokhara.
In the meeting, PM Deuba urged CPN-UML chairman Oli to help endorse the MCC in consensus.
In response, Oli asked to end parliament impasse by taking action against the 14 lawmakers (of CPN-Unified Socialist) or Speaker Agni Sapkota should step down to pave the way for the participation of the UML in the parliament proceedings.
Oli also said that his party was ready to go for a fresh election if the parliament does not take its normal course.
After the meeting, government spokesman and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that in the meeting Prime Minister Deuba proposed to endorse the MCC on the consensus of all.
In response, Oli urged the PM to create an environment so that his party could put its views in the parliament.
“If an environment is built for the UML to participate in the House proceedings, the UML was ready to help the government on the MCC,” Karki said quoting Oli`s statement.
“How the UML can run away from MCC as the compact was registered by the UML government in the Parliament, and our party (the Nepali Congress) has tabled it. So the UML will not run away from the MCC,” Karki said.
After the Balkot meeting, CPN-UML leader and former Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said that the UML would not remain undecided on MCC. It would give not only its decision on MCC but a clear direction to it as various issues of Nepal’s external relations are associated with this.
He said that the meeting between the two parties which fought together for Loktantra was positive.
However, the government should create an environment so that UML could participate in parliamentary discussions, Gyawali added.
Stating that basic understanding between the democratic parties like the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML is needed to avoid many problems, Gywali reiterated the party’s demand for a creation of a situation in the parliament so that the party could participate in the discussion on MCC.
Gyawali accused the ruling parties of making the MCC a geo-political issue although it was an issue between only Nepal and the US.
The leaders of the two parties agreed to hold another meeting tomorrow as well, according to Gyawali.
Earlier, PM Deuba held meetings separately with CPN (Maoist Centre) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal at Baluwatar.
Govinda Pariyar, press chief of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, informed that the Prime Minister and Prachanda discussed the issue of MCC.
Earlier in the day, leader Prachanda had held a meeting with Madhav Kumar Nepal, chairman of the CPN (Unified Socialist).
In the meeting with Prime Minister Deuba, leader Nepal urged not to ink any agreement with the main opposition in haste.
Talking with journalists, Nepal said his party was against the MCC without amending its few provisions.
After the two ruling parties—CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist)—did not cooperate with the government to endorse the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact from the parliament, PM Deuba has been trying to receive UML’s support to conclude the MCC while exerting pressure on the ruling parties to support him on MCC.
On Thursday, PM Deuba and CPN-UML chair Oli held meeting twice, at the Parliament Building, New Baneshwor, in the afternoon, and at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar in the evening.
PM Deuba and UML boss Oli had also held similar meeting Tuesday evening.
The MCC compact tabled in the parliament is scheduled to be discussed in the parliament on coming Sunday.
Source : TRN,
