Parliamentary committee to begin hearing on ambassadorial nominees

The parliamentary special hearing committee is set to begin hearing on ambassadorial nominees after the foreign ministry sent 14 names for ambassadorial positions in different countries on Tuesday.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Arjun Bahadur Thapa told Kantipur Daily that after receiving the stamp of approval from the committee, their names would then be forwarded to the countries for which they were recommended for ‘agreemo’.

There has only been a slight change in the list of the names the previous government had recommended for the 14 countries 6 months ago. Instead of Bhagirath Basnet who was recommended as ambassador to Britain, the name of former representative to United Nations Permanent Mission Murari Raj Sharma has been proposed.

Nepali Congress leader Sailaja Acharya had been recommended as ambassador to India, Tanka Karki to China, Dr Suresh Chalise to United States, Dinesh Bhattarai to UN Permanent Mission in Geneva, Pramesh Hamal to Belgium, Surya Kiran Gurung to Russia, Pradeep Khatiwada to Bangladesh and Dr Navin Prakash Jung Shah to Thailand.

Likewise, Ganesh Yonjan had been recommended as ambassador to Japan, Hamid Ansari to Saudi Arabia, Suryanath Mishra to Qatar, Guna Laxmi B.K to Myanmar and Bal Bahadur Kuwar to Pakistan.

According to parliamentary secretariat officials, the committee chaired by senior parliamentarian Amod Prasad Upadhyaya would begin the hearing on the names. nepalnews.com ag June 27 07