A closed door meeting of the SAC at Singha Durbar issued the directive saying internal restructuring of the national army was related with Article 144 (3) of the Interim Constitution and Article 4 (7) of the Comprehensive Peace Accord. [break]The decision states there should be consensus among political parties before institutional reform of the NA as per the provision set in the Interim Constitution.
Article 4 (7) of the CPA likewise states that the cabinet would prepare and implement detailed action plan of democratization of the NA, including determination of the right number of the Nepali Army, by taking suggestions from the concerned committee of the interim parliament.
The meeting categorically directed the prime minister and defense minister not to take any decision on the issue before the SAC gives a final decision after detailed study of Office and Mangement (O &M) Survey and army´s democratization proposal, among other things.
“We have directed the government to provide copies of army´s democratization proposal, O&M Survey and the research, if any, conducted by National Security Council for detailed studies,” said SAC Chairman Ram Nath Dhakal.
The proposal floated by the NA plans to create posts of two Lieutenant Generals, six Major Generals, 10 Brigadier Generals, 14 Colonels and 50 Lieutenant Colonels as a part of the internal restructuring of the NA. Nearly 4,000 officer level posts will be created in the army once the restructuring plan comes into effect.
It is estimated that the creation of senior positions in the army will cost the government an additional Rs 120.5 million a year.
During the SAC meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who also holds the portfolio of Defense Ministry, had argued that internal restructuring was necessary as the army´s strength had grown from 18,000 to over 92,000 in 47 years when the last restructuring was carried out.
However, Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and leaders close to Baidya faction of the Maoists are against the internal restructuring plan, at least for now.
Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Jagadish Narasingh KC of NC and Bishnu Paudel of the UML and Pampha Bhusal of the UCPN (Maoist), among others, were against the restructuring plan without a detailed study.
According a participant in the meeting, UML leader Paudel, who was the defense minister in Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government, said that he had decided to put the NA´s proposal on hold as its conflicts with provisions of the Interim Constitution. "There must be political consensus among all parties to implement any kind of internal restructuring in the army,” the participant quoted Paudel as saying.
Likewise, Maoist lawmaker Bhusal had argued that a plan was not relevant in the wake of suggestions coming from various quarters to right sizing the army.
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