BY FAZEENA SALEEM
DOHA: Caught up in a controversy and asked by her government to leave Qatar, Nepal’s ambassador Maya Kumari Sharma (pictured) has got a stay order from her country’s highest court against her recall.
Sharma told The Peninsula yesterday that Nepal’s Supreme Court issued an order staying her recall last Friday after she filed a petition through a lawyer challenging her government’s decision.
“I didn’t go home to file the petition. I appointed a lawyer and he did it on my behalf. The next court hearing will also be attended by him. I wouldn’t go.”
Sharma said in her petition that Nepal government’s decision to dismiss her from Doha as the country’s envoy was unlawful as she was appointed by Nepal’s President. The decision to recall her was issued without following due legal process, she claimed in her petition which is, arguably, a rare development in the Himalayan Kingdom’s legal and diplomatic history.
Reluctant to leave Qatar, she told this newspaper that Doha had no role in her recall. “They didn’t request the Nepal government to recall me. I have met senior Qatari officials and they didn’t give any hint that they requested that I be recalled.” Sharma stoked controversay after she was quoted by sections of the western media criticising Qatar on labour issues. She denied she said anything against Qatar and claimed she was misquoted.
According to her, the court has asked the government that if she had been recalled for creating controversy in the media about Qatar, then it will have to prove that she had made those statements to the media. “The fact is that I didn’t say those things,” she reiterated.
Sharma, however, said she was not sure of getting justice because the judiciary in her country was not independent. “The Nepalese government has so much influence over the judiciary and I am afraid I might not get justice,” she said. A single-judge bench of Nepal’s Supreme Court issued the stay order and hearing on her writ petition will take place after 15 days after a key festival (Dussehra) that began yesterday.
“Qatar’s image was maligned using my name, so I would like to stay here and help clean up the image,” Sharma said.
“I earnestly feel it is my responsibility to do that.”
She said that Qatar’s Labour Department is quite active and takes worker complaints quite seriously and acts on them with efficiency.
The Peninsula
