Kathmandu: Leaders of political parties have said that the agreement on US assistance cannot be ratified without clarifying the doubts about the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC).

Nepali Congress President and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had called an all-party meeting to discuss the issue of running the parliament and approving the MCC. Leaders of various parties participating in the meeting have suggested to Prime Minister Deuba that the misgivings arising out of various clauses of the MCC cannot be taken forward in the Parliament and cannot be approved.

The issue was raised by Prime Minister Deuba at a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar. As MCC is necessary for Nepal, Deuba said that the government would present it in the parliament and move ahead with the approval process. Expressing support for Deuba’s statement, former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said that MCC should be implemented by building national consensus. Congress leaders Ram Chandra Poudel, former finance minister Ram Sharan Mahat and others expressed support for the same.

However, leaders of other parties said that it was not yet clear whether the MCC would be tabled in parliament or not. According to Rastriya Janamorcha general secretary Manoj Bhatta, most of the leaders who spoke at the meeting said that they could form an opinion only after clarifying the various provisions of the MCC.

‘How does the implementation of MCC affect the law of Nepal? Will MCC be effective or will Nepal’s laws be effective? Should India’s approval be sought for construction of transmission line? There were questions from all the parties on these issues. Many leaders said that it is not possible to form an opinion on whether to approve MCC or not until the answers to those questions are clear, ‘Bhatt informed.

During the meeting, CPN-Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda said that various doubts regarding the MCC were not clear and should not be taken forward. “We have been discussing the issue with the ruling coalition. It needs to be clarified. If some provisions are against our national interest, they should be amended and moved forward, ‘said Prachanda. Chairman of the CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal also said that the decision on whether to approve the MCC could be made only after the doubts about the MCC were clarified.

After the meeting, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that there was a long discussion on moving the MCC forward in the meeting. He said that an agreement was reached in the meeting after extensive discussions on MCC. “We have not reached a conclusion on the MCC yet, we will discuss it again, and we will come to a conclusion,” he said.