RULING COALITION, NC, UML MEET Kathmandu, 3 July: A joint meeting of ruling coalition parties and opposition NC and UML is being held Tuesday following an agreement between Maoist Chairman and NC President Sushil Koirala. Budget, way to promulgate constitution, political and constitutional deadlock, a national consensus government and other issues will be discussed. Nnnn GURU PURNIMA BEING OBSERVED TUESDAY Kathmandu, 3 July: Guru purnima is being observed Tuesday Students offer respect to teachers Ruesday. nnnn MEDIA GOOGLE “What we agreed today [Monday] is that a consensus government can be formed under NC's leadership as per the May 3 agreement after major parties reach an understanding on issues related to state restructuring and federalism. “In order to hold fresh CA elections, we need to make amendments to the Interim Constitution, as well as laws related to elections,” said Mahato, adding: “For this, the major parties are required to build consensus first. UCPN (MAOIST), UDMF LAUNCHING FEDERAL ALLIANCE Kathmandu, 3 July: At a time when leaders of major political parties ranting about consensus, a meeting of ruling UCPN (Maoist) and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) on Monday decided to form an alliance of pro-federalist parties under the leadership of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Republica reports. Talking to Republica after the meeting, Sadbhawana Party Chairman Rajendra Mahato said the alliance will soon take shape. "We have decided to form Federal Democratic Alliance (FDA) under the leadership of Dahal," Mahato said and added that they will soon start talks with the parties that favor identity-based federalism. Despite the decision to form the Federal Democratic Alliance, the same meeting also asked Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to take initiatives to forge consensus among political parties to end the current political impasse and concluded that there was no alternative to forging consensus on the issues of new constitution, government, election and budget. "The meeting tasked UCPN (Maoist) chairman to take initiatives for forging consensus among parties on new constitution, government, election and budget. ‘Once the political parties arrive at consensus on the new constitution, they should hold talks for promulgating new constitution.” The meeting also concluded that if political parties could not arrive at consensus on the issue of reviving the CA, they should forge consensus on removing the legal and constitutional difficulties in order to hold new CA elections. "If the political parties agreed on the CA election, the election date of November 22 could be changed," Mahato added. The ruling parties maintained that there was no alternative to unveiling a new budget. "It is the responsibility of the government to bring the fiscal budget," said Mahato. Emerging from the meeting, Minister for Information and Communications Rajkishor Yadav said the issue of the budget has been "unnecessarily politicized". "Budget is merely an economic issue, but it has been unnecessarily politicized," said Yadav, adding, "If a new budget is not announced on time then it will have long term impact on the economy." REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, July 3: At a time when leaders of major political parties ranting about consensus, a meeting of ruling UCPN (Maoist) and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) on Monday decided to form an alliance of pro-federalist parties under the leadership of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Talking to Republica after the meeting, Sadbhawana Party Chairman Rajendra Mahato said the alliance will soon take shape. "We have decided to form Federal Democratic Alliance (FDA) under the leadership of Dahal," Mahato said and added that they will soon start talks with the parties that favor identity-based federalism. Despite the decision to form the Federal Democratic Alliance, the same meeting also asked Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to take initiatives to forge consensus among political parties to end the current political impasse and concluded that there was no alternative to forging consensus on the issues of new constitution, government, election and budget. "The meeting tasked UCPN (Maoist) chairman to take initiatives for forging consensus among parties on new constitution, government, election and budget," said Sadbhawana Party Chairman Rajendra Mahato, who was present at the meeting held at the prime minister´s office at Baluwatar on Monday morning. According to him, they maintained that political parties should arrive at consensus on the new constitution before forming a national consensus government under the leadership of Nepali Congress (NC) as per the five-point agreement reached among political parties on May 2. "Once the political parties arrive at consensus on the new constitution, they should hold talks for promulgating new constitution," said Mahato, adding, "If political parties forged consensus on reviving the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the Supreme Court (SC) gave nod for this, then the CA could be revived." The meeting also concluded that if political parties could not arrive at consensus on the issue of reviving the CA, they should forge consensus on removing the legal and constitutional difficulties in order to hold new CA elections. "If the political parties agreed on the CA election, the election date of November 22 could be changed," Mahato added. The ruling parties maintained that there was no alternative to unveiling a new budget. "It is the responsibility of the government to bring the fiscal budget," said Mahato. Emerging from the meeting, Minister for Information and Communications Rajkishor Yadav said the issue of the budget has been "unnecessarily politicized". "Budget is merely an economic issue, but it has been unnecessarily politicized," said Yadav, adding, "If a new budget is not announced on time then it will have long term impact on the economy." When asked about opposition demand for resignation of the prime minister before bringing budget, Mahato said, "We concluded that there is no need for the prime minister to resign until a consensus government is formed. The present government is just a caretaker one," he stated. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Vice-chairman and Foreign Minister Narayankaji Shrestha and Prime Minister´s Political Advisor Devendra Poudel and the chairmen of five Madhesi parties associated with UDMF were present at the meeting. nnnn ________________________________________ GOVT. FREQUENCY PLAN IN LIMBO Kathmandu, 3 July: It seems frequency issues will further remain in ad-hocism that means the government has to compromise on the volume of revenue and some service providers will be deprived of a level playing field, Thee Himalayan Times reports. The 16th meeting of Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee under the Ministry of Information and Communications that was slated for yesterday could not take place due to a dispute in Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Republican (MPRF-R). The meeting was expected to make headway for the future in some crucial issues of the telecom sector, said joint secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications Surya Bahadur Raut. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the recently dissolved parliament had clearly directed the government to adopt a bidding system to allocate frequency since frequency is public property, he said. “But, the government failed to implement the recommendation.” Overall revenue mobilisation will be affected due to lack of a clear frequency policy, he said, adding that new foreign investment will also be affected if the government fails to enact uniformity in its policy. Currently, there are six telecom service providers in the country and it is sure that the frequency issue will be the major problem to regulate if the government does not introduce a clear frequency policy, said Raut. nnnn GOVT. WON’T SPEND EARMARKED RS.82 MILLION IN CURRENT BUDGET Kathmandu, 3 June: At a time when there is no legitimate oversight agency to maintain checks and balances, a whopping surplus of over Rs 82 billion is staring the budget in the face, Kuvera Chalise writes in The Himalayan Times. . The Unified CPN-Maoist-led government's inability to use up development expenditures till the 11th month of this fiscal has swollen the central bank's treasury by Rs 52 billion and by the end of this fiscal on July 15, the government is mobilising more than Rs 30 billion in the revenue, making a total of over Rs 82 billion surplus. Economists, however, suspect 'gross financial indiscipline' that will not only hike prices but also add fuel to informal economy, which is already as big as formal economy, hitting the country hard. "Since there is no legitimate agency to maintain checks and balances to ensure how the government is going to mobilise the budget, the huge surplus will be misused," says Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, former vice-chairman of National Planning Commission. The government had allocated Rs 72.61 billion for the capital expenditures and Rs 266.61 billion for the recurrent expenditures in the current fiscal year's budget of Rs 384.90 billion. But the government had revised the capital expenditures downwards to Rs 65 billion during the mid-term budgetary evaluation due to slow performances by the development projects and government's inability to spend. The recurrent expenditures are the regular administrative expenses and salaries, whereas the capital expenditures are spending on development works that could have created employment and economic activities. "By the end of mid-June), the government has been able to spend only Rs 31.76 billion on cash basis," says Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota. "If commodity grants and direct payment from the donors of Rs 8.59 billion are also added to the capital expenditures, it will add up to Rs 40.35 billion that is 56 per cent of the total capital expenditures," says Baskota, adding that the Ministry of Finance has, however, done a recalculation, and the expenses are expected to zoom up by the end of 12th month, as the ministries have yet to submit the details of expenses. "The budget will be spent according to government's estimation," Baskota claims. But Pokharel casts doubt on government's motive. "The ministries might arbitrarily distribute the budget in unproductive ways," says Pokharel, adding that chances of misusing surplus budget to gain votes are high, given the fact that the government has already announced elections with claims to secure a two-thirds majority. "In the absence of Parliament and parliamentary committees like Public Accounts Committee, the UCPN-M-led government will misuse the surplus budget by distributing money among the party cadres," says senior economist Bishwhambher Pyakuryal. "The financial indiscipline will cost the country dearly as it will fuel inflation," says Pyakuryal. Despite the surplus, the government has recently borrowed some Rs 9 billion domestically by squeezing the resources for the private sector that will find it hard to get loan, says Pyakuryal. "The private sector's low borrowing capacity will again hit the economy," he says. In the absence of Parliament and parliamentary committees like Public Accounts Committee, the UCPN-M-led government will misuse the surplus budget by distributing money among the party cadres. Bishwhambher Pyakuryal Nnnn HOME MINISTRY PREPRES PARDONS FOR SERIOUS CRIMES ON PARTYRECOMMENDATION Kathmandu, 3 July: Under direction from the political level, the Ministry of Home Affairs has prepared directives relating to clemency that propose pardons, remittance and suspension of sentences for convicted criminals and even for those who have never served their jail terms, upon the recommendation of political parties, Kiran Chapagain writes in Republica.. Top government officials now worry that the document purportedly prepared to better enforce Article 151 of the Interim Constitution leaves enough room for the political parties to politicize the exercise of clemency and abuse the clemency powers, if it is endorsed by the cabinet. The provision relates to the president´s powers to grant pardons and suspend or remit sentences passed by courts, special courts or by any other judicial, quasi-judicial or administrative authority or body. The document titled ´Directive on Granting Pardons, Suspending, Commuting or Remitting Sentences´, is currently in the bills committee of the cabinet. "The directive does not meet international standards. Nowhere in the world are pardons granted and sentences suspended or remitted on the recommendation of political parties," said a senior government official who has read the document, adding, "If it is passed, only those who have political connections will enjoy clemency." A senior home ministry official, confirming the proposal, told Republica that the document was prepared "obliviously under direction from the political level". He, however, declined to disclose who directed the ministry to prepare such directives. Asked to comment on the proposed directives, Home Ministry Spokesperson Shankar Koirala declined to do so. The directives seen by Republica say that the Ministry of Home Affairs will recommend to the cabinet pardons, suspension or remittance of sentences upon the recommendation of the major political parties only. Another government official familiar with international practice in clemency told Republica that the proposed provision does not meet international standards. "As per international practice, the law ministry recommends pardons only after conducting its own thorough investigations into the reasons why one should be pardoned, or a sentence should be suspended and commuted," said the official on condition of anonymity. Human rights lawyer Govind Bandi also says that the provision is against internationally accepted standards for pardons. "Internationally, pardons can be granted only by acting on a recommendation from an independent body. And any person who seeks pardon should have demonstrated good conduct in jail and realized his crime," Bandi elaborated about the international practice. As per international practice, clemency is granted only to criminals serving jail terms, according to Bandi. But the proposed directive is silent about all this. The directive states that pardons, remittances and suspension of jail terms cannot be granted to those convicted of corruption, involvement with illegal drugs, crimes related to immigration and passports, leakage of revenue, rape, money laundering, terrorism, disruptive activities, illegal organ transpant, espionage and leaking of state secrets. The directives, according to officials, are silent whether pardon will be given to those convicted of murder, serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity. They said this loophole can be misused by the political parties. "As per the international practice, pardons, remittances and suspension of sentences cannot be given to persons convicted of murder, torture, crimes against humanity and serious human rights violations," said Bandi, who did research on the powers of pardon while pleading at the Supreme Court last year against the government decision to pardon erstwhile Maoist lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel. The proposed directive is silent about compensation and reparations for the victims while pardoning culprits. As per existing international practice, prior consent of the victims or the victims´ family is required before recommending pardon for the perpetrators, according to Bandi. Subodh Raj Pyakurel, president of Insec, said the proposed directives on pardon, remittance and suspension of sentence goes against Nepal´s commitment to rule of law and the international human rights treaties to which it is a party. "As per the existing laws, pardons cannot be given to those convicted for criminal activities," said Pyakurel, "The directive has been proposed in contravention of Nepal´s commitment to international human rights instruments." The bills committee of the cabinet last Friday discussed the directives briefly but could not endorse them despite being urged by ministers to do so, according to officials involved in the discussions. "Though the ministers wanted it passed by that meeting, we blocked the move, arguing that there should be more discussion on the document before it is passed," said a secretary who participated in the meeting. nnnn ________________________________________