PM stops Foreign Minister's Geneva visit just before leaving for airport

Sanjib Bagale

Kathmandu, Feb 26

Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has stopped Geneva visit of Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal hours before she was scheduled to board the plane.

Paudyal was scheduled to leave for Geneva on a 6 pm flight but a phone call from the PM’s office at around 3:30 in the afternoon stopped her visit, according to Paudyal’s press coordinator Yashoda Adhikari.

“PM called me in the morning and asked when I was leaving for Geneva. I said I am leaving today,” Minister Paudyal told Setopati after the visit was stopped. “A phone call from the chief secretary arrived at the ministry at around 3:30 in the afternoon even as I was preparing to leave for the airport saying foreign minister should not go.”

Paudyal said she did not go to the airport after the phone call came in a way to insult her. She had organized a press conference at 11 Sunday morning to inform that she was leaving for Geneva today.

She said she was not given any reason for stopping the visit.