KATHMANDU, AUGUST 8
Despite Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha's response on the gold smuggling racket, the major opposition party UML obstructed the House again today.
Earlier, the UML had agreed to allow the House to run smoothly on condition that Home Minister Shrestha respond to queries related to the gold smuggling racket. However, the UML blocked the meeting again complaining that DPM Shrestha had avoided the topic.
Lawmakers of the major opposition party shouted slogans in the House against the home minister for failing to heed its demand for formation of a high-level probe committee to investigate the gold smuggling case that happened through Tribhuvan International Airport.
After the UML's protest, Speaker Devraj Ghimire adjourned the meeting until 1:00pm tomorrow. The meeting of the HoR was postponed without discussing the agenda.
According to the House of Representatives Rule 2022 article 248 (3), the house decided to announce the suspension of HoR member Top Bahadur Rayamajhi who is behind bars in the Bhutanese refugee scam.
Similarly, Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs, Dhanraj Gurung was all set to present the Transitional Justice Bill. Minister of Education Science and Technology Ashok Rai was supposed to present the 'Nepal University Bill 2023' produced by the Upper House and to send it for discussion to the related committee. However, no agenda could be discussed as UML lawmakers stood up and obstructed the House.
The UML protested stating that the home minister's response was not satisfactory. As soon as the home minister finished his speech, UML MPs rose from their seats and protested, the speaker gave time to UML Chief Whip Mahesh Bartaula to speak.
Bartaula mentioned that the home minister had accused the opposition party of obstructing Parliament in a crooked way and claimed that the Parliament had been obstructed because of the government.
He said the meeting of the House of Representatives, which was supposed to be held on June 30, was postponed due to the ruling party's stance not because of the opposition.
Earlier, the meeting of the House of Representatives was disrupted by publishing notices three times in a row.
He asked: "What happened to the UML'S demand for a High Level Inquiry Committee? Why was this not addressed? How did this go into limbo?"
"We have doubts about collusion between the home minister and the finance minister. If the CIB, the Department of Revenue Investigation had brought the home minister and the finance minister into the process of investigation, we would not have demanded formation of a high-level probe committee."
He said that the demand for a high-level inquiry committee remains. After the UML's protest and obstruction in the House, Speaker Ghimire ended the proceedings of the Parliament till tomorrow.
UML MP Yogesh Bhattarai, who spoke at the beginning of the House session, said Nepal's international image had been tarnished due to the gold smuggling case. He said, "The UML is still determined to form an impartial commission of inquiry."
He reiterated his demand arguing that if a high-level inquiry committee had not been formed, issues like the Sudan scam and the Lalita Niwas Land grab case would have been put on the back-burner.
"There may be legal hurdles in some of these matters. Bodies like revenue investigation and CIB cannot recommend new legal arrangements," he said, "We have questions for the minister of home affairs, minister of finance and PM Dahal, and for that, a high-level investigation is necessary."
Meanwhile, Nepali Congress MP Bishwa Prakash Sharma, speaking after Bhattarai, questioned the opposition why there was distrust towards the institutions created by the law and the constitution. He said, "We are distrusting ourselves. We have no faith in the institutions we established." He also said that if the commission is to be formed, then the incident of Madan Bhandari's death and Nirmala Panta's rape and murder should also be investigated.
He questioned why the opposition had doubts about the government that opened the file of the fake Bhutanese refugees scam and Lalita Niwas Land Grab scam.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
