Kathmandu, March 23

The Parliamentary Regulations Committee of the Parliament is preparing to finalise the proposed Parliamentary Regulations before April 6, revealed Nepali Congress lawmaker Radheshyam Adhikari, who heads the PRC.

He said the committee would meet again only after March 30 when all the members would be in Kathmandu. Some members are visiting foreign countries.

Adhikari said he himself was going to visit three appellate courts to collect opinions on civil and criminal code bills and would be able to return to Kathmandu only after a week.

Finalisation of Parliamentary Regulations would pave the way for the formation of the Parliamentary Hearing Committee which would conduct the hearing for 11 newly nominated Supreme Court justices.

Adhikari said the major dispute was over the number of lawmakers in the PHC. Sources said the Nepali Congress wanted to have 73-75-member PHC, as was the case under the Interim Constitution but other parties wanted to have only 15 members as provisioned by the new constitution.

Adhikari said the parties would probably try to settle thorny issues through political understanding but if they failed to do so then the PRC would settle the issues through voting process. “If we have to put issues to vote, we would probably do that between April 2 and 6,” Adhikari added.

According to him, members of the PRC will also decide whether or not to allow the splitting of ministries.

The PRC finished clause-wise discussion on the report presented by PRC Subcommittee Chair Ram Narayan Bidari.

He said the Nepali Congress lawmakers were arguing that the number of PHC members should be as per the provisions of the Interim Constitution, as this was only a transformed Parliament and elections for new federal Parliament had not taken place as per the provisions of the new constitution.

“Nepali Congress’s argument that the provisions of new constitution about the strength of the PHC cannot be enforced holds no water.

If the provisions of the new constitution related to the strength of PHC cannot be enforced, then we cannot enforce any clause of the new constitution,” he said and added that the new constitution came into force the very day it was promulgated.

He said partisan interests of the political parties were the root cause of delay in the enactment of Parliamentary Regulations.

Bidari, however, expressed confidence that new Parliamentary Regulations would be enacted by April 7.