NC ends Parliament obstruction after three days

Kathmandu, February 11

The main opposition Nepali Congress, which had been obstructing the House of Representatives protesting ‘discriminatory’ indictment of its leader Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar for the past three sessions, ended its obstruction today.

A meeting of the NC parliamentary party held this morning took decision to that effect after a meeting of the NC central working committee last evening concluded that Gachhadar would tackle the issue politically.

As soon as HoR Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota announced commencement of the House proceedings, NC lawmakers stood up from their seats, and the speaker allowed NC Whip Pushpa Bhusal to speak.

Announcing that the NC had ended House obstruction, Bhusal said her party obstructed the past three sessions of the House against the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority’s decision to indict Gachhadar, under the government’s influence.

Referring to the recent statement of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Baskota, who had said the CIAA’s move was the government’s achievement, Bhusal said Baskota’s statement proved that the CIAA was under the government’s influence.

“We know that the case has been filed in the court and the NC does not question the court’s neutrality,” said Bhusal. “However, the NC is against the CIAA being rendered the government’s shadow.

This will eventually weaken democracy.”

She said the NC would continue to raise issues in the future also if the CIAA continued such acts. “We are watching the CIAA very closely,” she said.

Socialist Party-Nepal lawmaker Sarita Giri said it was a matter of grave concern that the House was obstructed at a time when there were various issues to be raised including prolonged delay in evacuating hundreds of Nepalis from China due to corona virus outbreak.

She also said if the constitutional body like the CIAA failed to perform as per the spirit of the constitution, lawmakers could register impeachment motion against CIAA office bearers.

Nepal Workers and Peasants Party lawmaker Prem Suwal said the government’s plan to set up a quarantine facility for Nepalis evacuated from China at Nepal Electricity Authority property in Bhaktapur met with public protest. “Therefore, the government must set up such facilities where there’s no dense settlement, as per the recommendation of World Health Organisation,” he said.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Min Bahadur Bishwakarma demanded that the government evacuated Nepalis from China at the earliest.