KATHMANDU, March 22 -- The government has been criticized even by the ruling party leaders after bringing in a law that allows any person's phone to be tapped.

A leader of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC), Dr Shekhar Koirala said that tapping personal phones under any pretext is not acceptable.

He also said that the CPN (Maoist Center)-led government has created an atmosphere of doubt by re-introducing the draft of a law that was stopped in the past.

"Tapping personal phones under this or that pretext is not acceptable in a democracy," he said.

Koirala has requested that parties, human rights workers, civil society and the press should also pay attention to such actions related to national security.

The bill introduced by the previous...