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Major coalition partner quits government in Nepal

Xinhua, May 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Rashtriya Prajatantra Party of Nepal (RPPN), a major coalition partner of the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government in Nepal, has quit the government on Monday.

Mohan Shrestha, leader of the party, told Xinhua that the RPPN Chairman Kamal Thapa submitted resignation to the prime minister later in the evening.

A crucial meeting of the party decided to pull out of the government expressing the discontent over the impeachment motion filed against the serving chief justice of the apex court at the parliament by the ruling parties, party leaders said here at a press conference.

"The impeachment motion against the chief justice was immature and irresponsible, and was moved with an ill intention. Thus we decided to pull out of the government in protest," RPPN Chairman Kamal Thapa told reporters in the capital.

Thapa was of the view that the ruling parties' move to file the impeachment motion against the chief justice was aimed at weakening the independent judiciary.

"The motion is rightly against the principle of separation of powers which is not acceptable for us," he added.

Sushila Karki, the first female chief justice at the Nepal's Supreme Court, was suspended on Sunday after 249 parliamentarians of ruling parties filed the impeachment motion.

The parliamentarians have accused Karki of interfering the government's decisions through court verdicts.

The RPPN was involved in the government with the four cabinet ministers including Kamal Thapa, who was the deputy prime minister overseeing the federal affairs ministry.

The RPPN is the fourth largest party in the parliament with 37 seats.

This is a major setback for the current coalition government as the country is planning to hold local body elections on May 14 and June 14, observers said.

Earlier on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Bimalendra Nidhi had stepped down from the post expressing unhappiness over the ruling party's motion against the chief justice.

The country's two ruling parties, Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Center), lodged the impeachment motion against the chief justice, in the first such move in Nepal's history. Karki, 64, started her stint as the chief justice in April 2016. Enditem