CPN has called standing committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
"Standing committee meeting will be held on June 24. The meeting will discuss issues including the MCC," CPN General Secretary Bishnu Paudel told Setopati.
The standing committee meeting called to discuss the factional differences within ruling CPN was twice postponed at the start and middle of May.
The meeting on Wednesday is also likely to be used by the factions of CPN Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal to attack Chairman and Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli over his unilateral handling of both the party and the government. The two factions together have comfortable majority in the standing committee.
CPN has already decided to stop all works related to the MCC until it is endorsed by the House.
The ruling CPN is divided on the issue of MCC. Many including Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal are unhappy about the projects under it being included in the government's policies and programs and then the budget, and want to take a decision on the MCC in the party.
But Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli has been pointing that the MCC, which the main opposition party Nepali Congress has already urged the government to pass, has already been tabled in the House and it will be decided by the House and not political parties.
CPN had hotly debated MCC during the standing committee meeting in December 2019 with the erstwhile Maoists and those from Madhav Kumar Nepal faction opposing it saying it should only be passed if it becomes clear that it is not part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy floated by America.
The US embassy in Kathmandu later issued a 10-point statement clarifying that the MCC is not part of military affairs.
The press statement, which it said was in response to a large number of queries from Nepali citizens, politicians, and members of the media about the MCC, claimed that every Nepali government since 2012 has been in favor of the MCC and that there is no military component to the compact.
The issue was raised even during the central committee meeting that concluded on February 2 and the party formed a task force to address the issue. The party formed the task force led by senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal and including Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali and standing committee member Bhim Rawal as members on February 2 to study MCC to find out whether it is part of the American military strategy or not.
The task force recommended that it should not be endorsed without amendment. But Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali had put a 15-point dissenting opinion.
