A senior Maoist leader has raised serious objections against the ambassadorial nominations made by the government.

Stating that there has not been prior eight party understanding regarding the nominations, Maoist leader Dinanath Sharma said they will not allow the process of parliamentary hearing to proceed. This has yet again thrown the process of nominating ambassadors off-track.

Sharma’s reaction came in the wake of reports that Foreign Ministry sent a list of 14 nominees to the Parliamentary Special Hearing Committee for approval as per the interim constitution.

“We strongly protest this decision. The interim constitution clearly states that decisions have to be made based on consent of eight parties,” said Sharma.

Earlier, the Foreign ministry had sent the name of 14 nominees – with only one change from the list that was published six months ago and which was later stalled after Maoist protests.

Instead of Bhagirath Basnet who was recommended as ambassador to Britain, the name of former representative to United Nations Permanent Mission Murari Raj Sharma has been proposed in the new list.

Likewise, Nepali Congress leader Sailaja Acharya has been recommended as ambassador to India, Tanka Karki to China, Dr Suresh Chalise to United States , Dinesh Bhattarai to UN Permanent Mission in Geneva, Pramesh Hamal to Belgium, Surya Kiran Gurung to Russia, Pradeep Khatiwada to Bangladesh and Dr Navin Prakash Jung Shah to Thailand.

Furthermore, Ganesh Yonjan has been recommended as ambassador to Japan, Hamid Ansari to Saudi Arabia, Suryanath Mishra to Qatar, Guna Laxmi Shrestha B.K to Myanmar and Bal Bahadur Kuwar to Pakistan. The list of the nominees is a mixture of NC, UML and NC-Democratic leaders as well as foreign ministry mandarins.

Meanwhile, reports had said that the government has set aside ambassadorial positions in France, South Korea and Denmark for Maoists.