CPN-UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel States Government Attempts to Control Judiciary

Kathmandu. CPN-UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel has stated that the government has given a clear message that it is trying to keep the judiciary within its sphere of influence rather than as an independent institution. 

He said on social media – 'The postponement of the already challenged parliament and the issuance of an ordinance, followed by a meeting of the Constitutional Council and a decision accordingly, is not just a procedural matter, its intention was questioned. That clear indication was seen in the decision of the Constitutional Council. It is not a normal incident that the Chief Justice was recommended by ignoring three senior judges in a dignified institution like the judiciary. This has given a clear message that the government is trying to keep the judiciary within its sphere of influence rather than as an independent institution.'

He further says – 'Even when the judiciary was accused of politicization in the past, judicial activism in political cases was mostly seen against the government—sometimes even contradictory and unnatural. Perhaps the current government is trying to establish judicial partisanship in its favor within the judiciary. But this weakens the principle of power balance in parliamentary democracy and increases the risk of the country falling into the path of authoritarianism.'

He said that the society and the nation still have to face the consequences of not taking a strong stand against the wrong practices of August 23 and 24 in time.