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House committee ends hearing of envoys; still divided over Shailaja

The members of the parliamentary special hearing committee ended their hearing of 21 envoy-designates but were unable to reach consensus on the nomination of Shailaja Acharya as envoy for New Delhi.

According to the president of the committee Amod Prasad Upadhyaya, the committee has decided to submit the report of their decision to the concerned agency (Foreign Ministry).

"There was no consensus in case of Acharya. But we have decided to submit our decision to the concerned agency," he said. Upadhyaya hinted that the committee's differences over Acharya's nomination will not hinder her actual appointment as the envoy.

MP belonging to Janamorcha, Dilaram Acharya, remained steadfast in his opposition against Shailaja's appointment till the end. "I think approval of her nomination would have sent wrong message to the people since she was against Jana Andolan," said Dilaram Acharya. The Maoist members at the committee also had raised objections at Shailaja Acharya's nomination. But, they later agreed to proceed with the appointment process "in the interest of coalition culture," according to Dinanath Sharma.

The Committee had carried out hearing of the ambassador-designates for the remaining 13 countries on Friday. The committee had, earlier, completed hearing of eight ambassador-designates on Wednesday.

As per the government's nomination, Acharya has been proposed as ambassador to India. Likewise, other nominations include Pradeep Khatiwada (Bangladesh ), Pramesh Hamal (Belgium), Tanka Karki (China), Bal Bahadur Kunwar (Pakistan), Dr. Ganesh Yonjan (Japan), Dr. Surya Nath Mishra (Qatar) and Gunalaxmi Sharma BK (Myanmar).

Other nominees include Pampha Bhusal (France), Bijaya Kanta Lal Karna (Denmark), Yogendra Dhakal (Australia), and Dr. Rishi Adhikary (Malaysia ). Likewise, Arjun Thapa (United Arab Emirates), Baija Nath Thapaliya (Israel), Kamal Koirala (South Korea), Dr Suresh Chalise (United States), Surya Kiran Gurung (Russia), Navin Prakash Jung Shah (Thailand), Murari Raj Sharma ( United Kingdom), Hamid Ansari (Saudi Arabia), and Dinesh Bhattarai (Geneva) have also been nominated as envoys.

This is for the first time that Nepal has set up embassies in South Korea, Australia, Malaysia and Denmark. nepalnews.com sd Sep 14 07