Cabinet fails to decide on special committee

KATHMANDU, Oct 24 - The cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office in Singha Durbar on Friday ended without making any decision on formation of the much-hyped special committee to look after the army integration.

The much-anticipated cabinet meeting, which took place after being postponed twice earlier, understandably discussed the ...

 Meanwhile, the meeting today decided to adopt Nepal Samwat as the national calendar. Nepal Samwat is in use in the Newar community.

The ministers parted their ways after agreeing to meet again tomorrow.

Earlier today, the parties patched up their differences over the formation of the committee after the Maoists agreed to choose its headship from other party.

The meeting scheduled for 11 this morning was delayed due to a meeting of the major political parties. The meeting was held to forge an agreement over the contentious issue.

Meanwhile, the CPN-UML and the opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) have maintained their stance that the special committee should be headed by a party other than the CPN-Maoist.

In separate meetings with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the leaders of the political parties said that leadership of the committee should be given to other parties as the army integration is a complicated issue.

According to NC Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel, his party has stuck to its earlier stand that the headship of the committee should be in the hands of parties other than the Maoists, whose combatants are to be integrated into the NA.

However, the Maoists proposed that the committee should comprise Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Janadran Sharma, former rebel commander, as one of its members.

Poudel said that the CPN-Maoist proposed that at least two persons from the party should be represented in the committee which will decide the fate of the Maoist combatants.

Earlier today in a meeting, CPN-UML General Secretary Jhala Nath Khanal asked the Maoist leadership to become flexible on the issue, saying that the Maoists should not lead the committee.

Talking to media, Khanal said that he advised PM Dahal, who is also the Maoist chairman, to take initiatives to forge political agreement for the formation of the special committee which he said is a sensitive issue.