Nepalnews.com Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Cabinet approves Maoists' envoy-nominees

The cabinet meeting, on Thursday morning, has approved the nominations of additional seven ambassadors.

The seven nominees will be sent to the Parliamentary Special Hearing Committee for final approval.

The meeting finalised the seven names including four forwarded by the Maoists - Pampha Bhusal (France), Bijaya Kanta Lal Karna (Denmark), Yogendra Dhakal (Australia), and Dr. Rishi Adhikary (Malaysia). Other three names approved by the cabinet include Arjun Thapa (United Arab Emirates), Baija Nath Thapaliya (Israel) and Kamal Koirala (South Korea).

The cabinet will approve the names after the parliamentary committee completes the hearing as per the provision of the interim constitution.

The appointment of the envoys had been delayed after the Maoists failed to provide names on their part.

These apart, other one dozen nominees will also have to go through the parliamentary hearing. Their hearing could not take place earlier due to Maoist objection.

Those whose names have been agreed earlier include Shailaja Acharya (India), Dr Suresh Chalise (United States), Surya Nath Mishra (Qatar), Surya Kiran Gurung (Russia), Navin Prakash Jung Shah (Thailand) and Murari Raj Sharma (United Kingdom). Likewise, other nominees are Ganesh Yonjan (Japan), Pramesh Hamal (Belgium), Tanka Karki (China), Hamid Ansari (Saudi Arabia), Guna Laxmi Sharma BK (Myanmar), Bal Bahadur Kunwar (Pakistan), Dinesh Bhattarai (Geneva), and Pradeep Khatiwada (Bangladesh).

However, the cabinet on Thursday failed to finalise the names of the government secretaries after some ministers objected to some nominations saying they need more discussion. After the cabinet's administration committee failed to reach a consensus on appointment of secretaries, prime minister was entrusted to pick the secretaries. nepalnews.com ia Aug 30 07