Nepali Congress firm on integration stance

Kathmandu, Oct 27 : The formation of Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) is likely to be delayed further with the Nepali Congress (NC) remaining firm on its stance that the committee should not include over four members - one each from the four major parties.

NC Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel said, "There should be equal representation of all four parties in the committee. We have already made our stance clear to the Maoists."

"NC would not join a committee that does not have equal representation. "We have no reservation over the UML heading the committee," he added.

On Saturday, Minister for Information and Communications Krishna Bahadur Mahara had announced that the Cabinet meeting which is scheduled to be today would take a decision on formation of the committee set to determine the criteria for integrating Maoist combatants in the national army.

Earlier, the four major parties had agreed to form a four-member committee -- one representative each from the Maoist, the UML, the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF) and the Nepali Congress. But the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the AISC approved by the Cabinet has made provision for five members in the committee.

The formation of the committee was delayed, as Maoists demanded that the party should get to head the committee, Kantipur reported.

ANI