Pyakurel declines ambassadorial nomination

Kathmandu- Sushil Pyakurel, a human right activist, has turned down the government nomination for ambassadorial position to South Korea.

In a statement issued twenty four hours after the government decision, Pyakurel said he was not at all consulted or informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about this nomination and he disapproved of this lack of transparency in the process.

Pyakurel, a leader of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, and then one of the founders of INSEC as well as one of the members of the first National Human Rights Commission in the country, had been included in the list of to-be-appointed ambassadors in the UML Quota.

He had also served as the Human rights advisor to Bidhya Devi Bhandari when she became President but he quit after she granted amnesty to murder convicts on the occasion of the republic day.

According to some insiders, Pyakurel was facing a moral dilemma on the question of accepting or not accepting the position since a case that he has filed against Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda in a human right violation case is pending before the court.

Pyakurel’s withdrawal has already fueled speculation about who the UML will nominate in his place. Among others, the name of Tika Dhakal who also served as an expert advisor to Bidhya Bhandari, is doing the round.