The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) has called on a meeting of small political parties at the parliamentary party office to collect the support on sacking Chief of the Army Staff (CoAS) Rookmangud Katawal on Sunday afternoon.
Nepali Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara, also the spokesperson of the Nepali government, on Sunday made the announcement to sack the CoAS.
The decision was declared before the media people at Prime Minister Prachanda's official residence in Nepali capital Kathmandu after a cabinet meeting.
Earlier, the largest party of the coalition government UCPN-M, took the stance to sack the CoAS while other political parties boycotted the decision and the cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, the main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) has also called on a meeting of all political parties to muster support against the Maoists' unilateral decision of sacking CoAS.
However, the final decision on sacking of CoAS will be out only with the final consent of President Ram Baran Yadav.
The meeting between the UCPN-M and smaller parties in the parliament assumes significance as UCPN-M led government being reduced to a minority one with the pull-out from Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) (CPN-UML) and other partners.
On top of that, no other party has lent support to the UCPN-M move on sacking the army chief.
The file photo taken on Aug. 22, 2007 shows Chief of the Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal inspects the army parade in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal. The UCPN-maoist-led Nepali government sacked Chief of the Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal on Sunday, Nepal government spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said. The Defense Ministry, led by another senior leader of the UCPN-M Ram Bahadur Thapa, seeking clarifications from Chief of Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal on April 20 -- accusing him of defying a series of government orders -- has invited flaks from different quarters.
The UCPN-M emerged from the Constituent Assembly elections in April 2008 as the single largest party and led the formation of the first republic government in August 2008.
Ahead of that, the formerly Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) led by Prachanda signed the Comprehensive Peace Accord with the then government in November, 2006, ending the decade civil war in Nepal.
Source:Xinhua
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