Kathmandu, March 15

The Parliamentary International Relations Committee today endorsed ‘Report Related to Addressing Problems of Former British Gurkhas’ that calls for the formation of a high-level talks team to hold dialogue with the British government in line with the tripartite ‘Report of The Technical Committee on Gurkha Veterans’.

The report prepared by the committee’s sub-committee headed by lawmaker Bhim Rawal states that the high-level talks team should include representatives from the Nepal government, Parliament, former Gurkha organisations, experts on international law and high-level former Gurkha officers.

According to the report, the talks team will hold dialogue with the British government and finalise issues included in the tripartite technical committee’s report that calls for, among other things, providing serving and former Gurkhas pay, pension, and other facilities equal to those paid to British nationals, and compensation of the amount the former Gurkhas did not receive as a result of discrimination in salaries, pensions and other facilities.

The sub-committee report has also recommended formation of a committee led by foreign minister to study problems faced by former Gurkhas and demand that the British government provide former Gurkhas with compensation.

The minister-led committee shall include representatives from the International Relations Committee of the Parliament, experts on international law and Gurkha brigade, historians, sociologists specialising in indigenous nationalities and senior officials from former Gurkhas, according to the report.

The roles of the minister-led committee, according to the report, include preparing records of Gurkhas recruited since the First World War to date and identifying the actual number of those killed, disappeared and injured. The minister-led committee shall also ascertain the amount of compensation to be provided to the Gurkhas for discrimination and form a team of experts to archive the history of former Gurkhas.

The parliamentary committee’s Chair Pabitra Niraula Kharel said they would submit the report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after making language-related revisions within a couple of days.

Today’s parliamentary committee meeting also discussed issues related to recruitment of Nepali women in the British Army. Most of the lawmakers were of the view that Nepal should not allow recruitment of women in the British Army in violation of the Tripartite Agreement between the United Kingdom, India and Nepal in 1947.

The lawmakers said if the British government wanted to recruit women, the agreement should be revised.

The former Gurkhas have rejected the United Kingdom government’s recent announcement of an increased support package, stating the announcement does not address their demand for equal treatment.