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Journalism of Courage
Supreme Court Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi was on Thursday sworn in as Nepals new prime minister,replacing Baburam Bhattarai as the consensus candidate of four major political parties.
The government has been entrusted with the responsibility to hold elections to the constituent assembly by June 21,but it may be deferred up to mid-November if case of situations out of control.
The rest of the eight ministers will be nominated by the four political parties. According to the agreement,all the ministers will have to be retired civil servants belonging to the special class joint secretary and above and no active politician will be included in the cabinet.
Chief Justice Regmis swearing-in came barely two hours before the Supreme Court was to take up two cases challenging the appointment of an incumbent chief justice concurrently as the prime minister,in contravention of the principle of separation of powers.
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court however,deferred the hearing by a week.
Along with Regmis appointment,the four parties also cleared the deck for forming the long-pending Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate cases of human rights violation by the state as well as Maoists during the decade-long insurgency with the provision that there will be general amnesty granted to gross human rights violation.
Followers of 18 political parties,including the Communist Party of Nepal Maoists,meanwhile held a protest demonstration outside the Presidents office,claiming that entrusting executive responsibility to the head of the judiciary will amount doing away with the multi-party system.
The group that has vowed to dislodge Regmi from power said they would chart out their future course of action.
