News update from Nepal, July 14, 2005 News Update from Nepal July 14, 2005 Government Goes its Own Way On June 15, King Gyanendra said, before leaving for Doha(Qatar) to participate in the second summit conference of the G-77 nations,“Countries hit by terrorism need to be considered as countries with‘special needs’ by the international community and this is not the case at present. Recent efforts in Nepal intended as they are to safeguard democracy, peace and development, we believe, are yielding encouraging results.” The Royal government took a number of initiatives to consolidate the regime. In June it appointed new members for the National Planning Commission(NPC). The NPC is a policy think tank of the government. Similarly, it also appointed Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the District Development Committee(DDC) in 25 districts of the country. The position of local bodies have been left vacant since the former Prime Minister Sher B. Deuba dissolved them in 2002. On July 8, the government passed a Civil Service (Amendment) Ordinance, having far-reaching consequences for the bureaucracy. The main points of the ordinance are: ban on professional unions for government employees; automatic creation of post if a secretary is transferred to the reserve pool; no seniority basis for the appointment of secretary; provision of contractual appointments for lower level posts; no life time pension for those appointed on a contractual basis; and no reservation for women, janajatis(ethnic) and dalits (untouchables) but only“positive discrimination.” Bhola Pokhrel, General­Secretary of Nepal Civil Service Employees Organization criticized this move saying that the government has violated ILO Conventions 87, 98 and 151, to which it is a signatory and warned the government to be prepared for“unpleasant consequences.” Similarly, Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities has expressed dismay over the removal of reservations for women, dalits and indigenous people in public service. On July 2, Sachit Shumsher Rana, former chief of army and advisor to the King, demanded that the agitating political parties should be declared“anti-national elements.””Why should not political parties, who join hands with the Maoists and dance to the tunes of foreigners, be declared anti-national elements?” he questioned. On July 6, Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers Dr. Tulsi Giri contended,“The country is facing a crisis because of the futile attempt to take monarchy and multiparty democracy together as the two pillars. Sovereignty should rest with the monarch. Political parties should come forward to reconcile with the king and make only one of the pillars strong so as to fight terrorism and restore peace. But, even if political parties ignore the king’s call, the nation will still go ahead. I ask the political parties to unite with the King in order to fight