The Hindu : Gyanendra defends dissolution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 06, 2002

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Gyanendra defends dissolution

KATHMANDU JUNE 5. Nepal's King Gyanendra said today his coming visit to India and China would further strengthen the goodwill and friendship of these `close neighbours' with the Himalayan kingdom.

``There has been no alteration in the goodwill of friendly countries including India and China towards Nepal,'' he said in a interview to Nepal Television and National News Agency on the occasion of the first anniversary of his accession.

The King is slated to pay a State visit to India on June 23, after which he would go to China. Referring to the Maoist violence, he expressed concern that Nepal, known for peace in the past, was choking in a spate of violence, terror and destruction.

He said the monarchy would always abide by the country's constitution. ``The institution of monarchy is functioning within the constitutional framework and will continue to function in the future also.''

He maintained that by dissolving the House of Representatives recently, he was discharging his duty as the constitutional monarch when the Prime Minister recommended the same. Meanwhile the Nepali Congress MPs today filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the dissolution of the Lower House of Parliament.

A total of 56 MPs who support the Nepali Congress President, Girija Prasad Koirala, filed the petition demanding that the Court issue a writ of certiorari and other necessary orders to reinstate the `Pratinidhi Sabha' (Lower House).

Mr. Koirala, who is on a visit to China, has not signed the petition but the party General Secretary, Sushil Koirala, and other central committee members and MPs of the dissolved House have signed it, a MP, said.

The Supreme Court, in an earlier case, had given a verdict that Parliament could not be dissolved if there was the possibility of formation of an alternative government from within the Parliament, he added.

The apex court had reinstated Parliament in 1995 when the House of Representatives was dissolved by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikari, heading a minority government, against whom a no-trust motion had been initiated.

— PTI, UNI

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