Kathmandu: Nepali Congress leader Narayan Prasad Saud is set to become Nepal’s new foreign minister and will be sworn in on Sunday, party sources said on Saturday.
The decision to appoint Saud as the Minister of Foreign Affairs was taken during a meeting of the ruling alliance attended by CPN-Maoist Centre chairperson and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-Unified Socialist chairperson Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Sixty-year-old Saud is also the central committee member of the Nepali Congress and he has been elected as the House of Representatives from Kanchan – a constituency in far-western Nepal.
He had earlier served as Minister of State for Education and Sports and Minister for Irrigation.
Saud will take the oath of office and secrecy at the Rastrapati Bhawan Sunday afternoon, according to a high-level source at the Nepali Congress.
There are four ministers representing the Nepali Congress party in the Prachanda-led coalition government, though there was an understanding to give eight ministerial birth to the NC.
The Nepali Congress could not decide on the four remaining ministers’ names due to an internal feud in the largest party in the House of Representatives.
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However, Prime Minister Prachanda decided to appoint Saud as foreign minister to facilitate his proposed visit to the southern neighbour, India.
Prime Minister Prachanda will embark on a visit to India within two weeks, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress told PTI.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently busy preparing for the Prime Minister’s upcoming official visit to India, though the date and itinerary of the visit are yet to be made public.
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