Nepali king reshuffles cabinet
KATHMANDU, Friday (Xinhua) Nepali King Gyanendra reshuffled the
Council of Ministers, or cabinet, by changing the portfolios of the
ministers and appointing new ministers under his chairmanship.
According to a communique issued by the Press Secretariat of the
king, the Council of Ministers has a total of 24 members - two
vice-chairman, 14 ministers and eight assistant ministers. The king has
made reshuffles of the cabinet by issuing orders as per Article 127 of
the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990. According to the
communique, Badri Mandal, Prakash Koirala and Niranjan Thapa are the new
cabinet ministers.
While all the ministers and vice chairmen in the council of ministers
have been retained, the king chose eight new faces as assistant
ministers in his cabinet. The newly appointed assistant ministers
include industrialist Roop Jyoti, Yankila Sherpa, Chhakka Bahadur Lama,
Golchhe Sarki, Jagat Gauchan, Nitshe Shumsher and Senate Shrestha.
The king dissolved the coalition government led by Prime Minister
Sher Bahadur Deuba and imposed a state of emergency throughout the
country on Feb. 1. He formed a 10-memeber new Council of Ministers under
his chairmanship the next day and appointed two former prime ministers -
Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista - as vice chairmen of the Council of
Ministers on Feb. 14. |