New republican state protocol ready
KATHMANDU, NOV 29 -
More than four years after the declaration of republic and months-long deliberation and debate among the bureaucracy, the government , at long last, is finalising the new republican order of precedence, which will place the President at the top of state protocol.
Accordingly, the vice-president is second, followed by the prime minister and then the chief justice. Earlier, following the restoration of democracy in 1990, the PM was placed 10th in precedence.
Those attending government functions are also included in the new state protocol, with the presidents of District Development Committees (DDC), mayors of municipalities, local development officers (LDO) and executive officers of municipalities at the bottom of the proposed order.
The new order of precedence has been under discussion at the Political Committee of the Cabinet for the past six months but little headway has been made so far due to differences between Cabinet members and senior government officials.
Senior Cabinet members and secretaries are in a serious quandary over where to place ambassadors to foreign nations in the new protocol and the proper positions for the chiefs of the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force. There is also dilemma over the seniority of the mayor, the executive officer, the LDO and the president of the DDCs.
The Speaker of the Parliament is placed fifth with former presidents and deputy prime ministers sixth on the order. However, as a former head of state, the ex-king has not been accorded any rank in the new order of precedence. The deputy speaker and former vice-presidents are seventh, followed by ministers.
“But the pressing issue at hand is the row between the two police chiefs. According to past practices, the chief of the Nepal Police (NP) was placed above the chief of the Armed Police Force (APF). Now, according to international practice, the APF, which is considered the firepower, is demanding a higher rank than the NP,” said another official.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that the APF is younger than the NP and that many junior NP and Nepal Army officers are holding senior positions at the APF. “How can senior police officers respect APF officials that are junior to them,” questioned the official. After ministers, justices of the Supreme Court have been placed ninth, assistant ministers tenth and the chief secretary eleventh. For the first time, the position of chief of army staff (CoAS) has been downgraded and now comes after the chief secretary, when earlier the Army Chief was placed above the chief secretary. “As the country is already marching to the republican set-up, civilian supremacy is the buzz word. So according to international practices, we have placed the chief secretary above the CoAS,” said a senior government official. The CoAS, attorney general and head of constitutional bodies have been allocated the twelfth.
In the initial draft, ambassadors were designated above ministers. Later, government secretaries opposed the ranking and asked Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel and Foreign Secretary Durga Bhattarai to downgrade the ambassadors. “Most likely, in the new protocol, ambassadors will be ranked under government secretaries,” said another official. Currently, government secretaries and foreign ambassadors will both be ranked fifteenth but government secretaries will be higher-up in the hierarchy.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
