Standing committee member of ruling CPN Surendra Pandey has said the task force he was part of had limitations preventing it from submitting a wide-ranging report and was merely an attempt to end the current impasse.
"We have done this for immediate resolution not a long-term one," Pandey said in an interview with Setopati talking about the report of six-strong task force. "You all know the situation our party was facing. There were no party meetings. Neither standing committee meeting nor secretariat. There was a lack of dialogue among the leaders."
He added that the report has tried to end that impasse, which had put both the party and the government in a difficult situation, for now to ensure that dialogue resumes as earlier and discussions can be held in the party committees.
The task force formed to resolve internal dispute in ruling CPN in its report submitted to the two chairmen on Saturday has recommended that Oli will serve the full five-year term as PM and Dahal will take the wheel of the party.
It recommends that Dahal will be fully active in party works but will consult PM Oli who will remain a sort of ceremonial chairman. Similarly, PM Oli will also move the government works forward consulting Dahal.
There are reports that senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal is unhappy with the report saying it has focused more on two chairmen than the party.
But Pandey, who is close to Nepal, refuted that and pointed the task force could not go beyond the limitations set while it was formed. "How can a task force formed by the two chairmen go beyond the jurisdiction of the two chairmen?" he argued. "The standing committee itself should have opted to take a decision. The standing committee could have taken any kind of decision. There was no way the task fore could have crossed the limits as it was not formed in that manner."
He revealed that the issue of one person, one post was discussed in the task force but was not included in the report as some members suggested that the issue should be collectively presented by the task force through its coordinator while submitting the report to the two chairmen.
He elaborated that the report has recommended that Cabinet reshuffle, appointment of chief ministers and provincial ministers should be done in consensus in accordance to certain standards and criteria after discussion in the secretariat. "To say it should be done as per party standard means attention was not paid to that earlier or standards were not considered or efforts were not made to forge consensus."
The task force led by CPN General Secretary Bishnu Paudel included standing committee members Janardan Sharma, Shankar Pokharel, Bhim Rawal, Surendra Pandey and Pampha Bhusal.
