June 01, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s deposed monarch is consulting astrologers to decide the most auspicious time to leave Katmandu’s main royal palace, newspapers reported on Saturday.

The Gorkhapatra newspaper, citing unnamed palace officials, said the ex-monarch’s son, former Crown Prince Paras, has already moved into the family’s private palatial Katmandu compound with his wife and children, but former King Gyanendra is looking for another place to live.

Gyanendra, whose throne was officially abolished on Wednesday by Nepal’s newly-elected Constituent Assembly, had been expected to move into the compound, the “Nirmal Niwas”, where he had lived before assuming the throne in 2001.

The palace has made no public statements since Nepal was declared a republic on Wednesday, and had no reaction to the newspaper report.

Gyanendra was ordered on Friday to vacate Katmandu’s main royal palace a pink concrete edifice dating from the 1970s within two weeks.

The king, who is a Hindu, is consulting astrologers about the best time to move out, reported the independent Naya Paktrika newspaper.

The newspaper reported that astrologers are telling Gyanendra to try to stay in the palace until the first week of July, when an astrological “dark phase” would likely end.

While it’s common practice among Nepal’s elite to seek advice from astrologers and priests on when to move homes, it seems unlikely the government will let Gyanendra linger in the palace.

The staunchly republican Maoists, former rebels who are now Nepal’s dominant political party, have threatened to remove him by force if he does not go peacefully.

The monarchy’s end was the culmination of a two-year peace process that saw the communist rebels give up their armed struggle and go on to take themost seats in April’s election for the Constituent Assembly, which is to rewrite Nepal’s constitution.—AP