Kathmandu (dpa) - Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was criticized Sunday for trying to defend a lawmaker from his party who was convicted of murder by the Supreme Court.
The cabinet on Thursday forwarded a written request to President Ram Baran Yadav to pardon lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel, who was convicted by the Supreme Court in 2010.
Dhungel was sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in a murder in 1998, when the country was mired in civil war.
The Supreme Court on Sunday issued a stay order to the government, asking it not to act on the decision to grant amnesty to the Maoist lawmaker. The next hearing was set for November 21.
According to the interim constitution, the president has the power to grant amnesty in "special cases." The cabinet reasoned that the murder took place during the Maoist insurgency, and said the case was "political" in nature.
Bhattarai was earlier criticized by the United Nations, and on Sunday, student unions affiliated to the main opposition parties demonstrated in the capital Kathmandu, asking him to revoke his decision.
He was also criticized for expanding the cabinet on Sunday - for the second time in a week. At 49 members, it is the biggest cabinet in the country's history.
Opposition parties and political analysts said the jumbo cabinet increases the economic burden on the government and is in sharp contrast to the austerity measures Bhattarai introduced when he took office.
The Maoists joined mainstream politics after the 2008 elections, after waging a decade-long insurgency that ended in 2006 with the signing of a peace deal with the government.
dpa pt ar
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