Even as both the government and the UCPN (Maoist), which nominated her name, asked her to quit following multiple controversies surrounding her, Nepali ambassador to Qatar Dr. Maya Kumari Sharma has refused to step down. 

Envoy Dr. Sharma insisted that she would step down only if the government formally asks her in writing. "I won´t step down just because a foreign secretary, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and newspapers are demanding my resignation. I do not need to abide by what Dahal says. Verbal requests alone can´t get an official decision taken," Sharma told Republica over the telephone from Doha. 

Envoy Sharma said though she was a member of UCPN (Maoist) when nominated as an envoy now she is the ambassador of the country. "My removal should be in the same way as I was appointed. Government-appointed me through a parliamentary hearing. So the government has to send me an official letter if it wants to recall me," she further said. 

UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had suggested to Dr. Sharma to step down from the post on Thursday in the wake of ambassador of Qatar to Nepal Ahmad Jasim Mohammed Ali Al Hamar requesting Nepalese authorities in writing to recall her to save the friendly relations subsisting between the two countries. This came after Dr. Sharma courted a series of controversies due to her blunt and undiplomatic remarks right since the time she assumed the post in January 2012.

Likewise, Foreign Secretary Arjun Bahadur Thapa separately called Dr. Sharma on Friday and suggested to her to step down in view of the host government expressing reservations about her. The Qatari envoy during his recent meetings with senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) including Foreign Secretary Thapa had cautioned that the continuation of Dr. Sharma as envoy in Qatar would not help strengthen the bilateral relations after their written request to MoFA some four months ago to recall her went unheard.

Published on: 24 September 2013 | Republica