ALL-PARTY MEET FRIDAY Kathmandu, 11 Jan.: President Dr.. Ram Baran Yadav has called an all-party meeting of parties represented in the dissolved parliament Friday morning to find an outlet to the current political crisis. The president Thursday extended for five days until Monday for the last and ninth time a deadline to find a successor of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to hold constituent assembly elections in April/May—unlikely now. The parties asked the president to extend the deadline amid demands by western embassies in the capital, Dr.Bhattarai should resign. Nnnn ELECTION COMMISSION HAS NO COMMISSIONERS AS LAST TWO SUPERANUATED Kathmandu, 11 Jan.: The Election Commission is going to be without commissioners from tomorrow as Acting Chief Commissioner Dolakh Bahadur Gurung and Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav are retiring after completing their six-year terms. Speaking at a press meet on the eve of his retirement, Gurung today expressed his serious concern about lack of leadership in the EC just as the country is set to go for polls. A press statement issued by the EC said, “EC on its part is all prepared to hold the election. During interactions with all the political parties two weeks ago, we had drawn the attention of all the 114 political parties registered in the commission to required amendments to the election-related laws.” Gurung said in the statement that the EC has already sent the draft of the ordinance on Constituent Assembly members, political parties and voters’ list to the government, seeking an amendment to the law so as to hold the polls. “In addition, despite our prior information to all concerned that officials should be appointed by giving the EC at least 120-day margin from the date of announcement of election, there has been no progress,” said Gurung. “Election without commissioners is impossible. An experienced leadership and at least 120 days after appointments of the commissioners are needed to conduct the election in a free and fair manner,” Gurung told the media. Gurung added that he and his retiring colleague Yadav have delegated power of 11 types of administrative tasks to the secretary. Gurung was appointed acting chief commissioner after Nil Kantha Upreti retired on November 7 as the chief election commissioner. Nnnn COUNTRY TO FACE MUSIC DURING FATF MEET Kathmandu, 11 Jan.:: After the arrest of Col Kumar Lama in the UK, Nepal should have learnt the importance of international commitments and their compliance, Kuvera Chalise writes in The Himalayan Times . The country had committed to international community in 2010 to fight the flow of dirty money, but it still has not approved the Bill Against Organised Crime, which could lead the country to a high risk zone to do business with international players. “Nepal, on January 17, will take part in face-to-face meeting, where it will brief on recent developments,” according to a high government official. “The meeting will report the next Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary and working group meetings scheduled to be held in Paris, on February 18-22, that will take the decision on whether to send the country to high risk zone or not,” he added. “The government must approve remaining Bill Against Organised Crime,” he said, adding the country, though, escaped blacklisting due to last minute approval of two — Mutual Legal Assistance Bill and Extradition Bill — of the three key Bills under UN conventions earlier. This time, it must approve the remaining Bill to fulfill the commitment or face the music. FATF — an inter-governmental body consisting of 36 member-jurisdictions and a number of observers — is the global standard setter for anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism. It has a number of working groups including the Working Group on Terrorist Financing, the Working Group on Evaluations and Implementations, the International Cooperation Review Group and the Working Group on Typologies. These working groups consist of international experts drawn from FATF member countries who collectively contribute to key policy decisions of FATF. The February meeting will consider policy issues relating to the current review of the FATF standards, discuss matters relevant to fourth round of evaluations that will commence in late 2013, and international cooperation issues with respect to a number of countries — including some Asia/Pacific Group (APG) members — and determine the way forward for jurisdictions that have strategic and other deficiencies in their domestic AML/CFT frameworks. These issues, and others, have an impact on the APG and its individual members, in the short and long term. The APG is an associate member of FATF and actively participates in its business meetings. Nepal is a member of the APG under FATF. The APG meets on a regular basis generally twice a year. APG’s two regular meetings are annual meetings in July and annual typologies workshop. Last time, APG held its 15th annual meeting in Brisbane, Australia, in July 2012. The 16th annual meeting will be held in Shanghai, China, in July 2013. It will focus on APG’s third round of mutual evaluations and the new FATF standards/assessment methodology and as well as on progress by individual APG members against the recommendations in the second round mutual evaluation reports, which is going to be crucial for Nepal, apart from this month’s face-to-face meeting, where the country will present its report on recent developments. nnnn