Nepal Vice President defends his remarks

Kathmandu, Nov 7 : Nepal Vice President Paramananda Jha today claimed that he was forced to speak in defense of the constitution as the parties had gone against it by protesting the concept of federalism.

Defending his recent remarks that the political parties were engaged in breaching the Interim Constitution, the Vice President claimed that he only cautioned the parties not to breach the constitution. It is the duty of the President and the Vice President to protect the constitution.

Talking to mediapersons here, Jha said that he made those remarks just to fulfill his responsibility, i.e. protecting the constitution. He also stressed that he had not made any statement against the constitution.

On Thursday, a newly formed two party mechanism of the Maoist and the UML have drew the attention of the Prime Minister Prachanda to make Jha's statement comprehensible, claiming it was unconstitutional.

The mechanism suggested Prachanda to take decision by consulting with other parties on the remark of the Vice President.

On Wednesday, Jha had accused the President of ignoring the responsibility of following the constitution and stated that the political parties violated the CA.

He had also remarked that the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) was formed against the spirit of interim constitution and expressed surprise over the apathy towards taking action against violators despite continuous infringing of the interim statute.

He expressed discontent over lack of role to the Vice President in the political happenings, said that provisions of the interim constitution was violated by forming the integration committee without representation of the major political parties as mentioned in the statute.

Jha said that he was bewildered for his unclear role due to lack of law, Kantipur reported.

ANI