Kathmandu February 27

The Federal Parliament Secretariat has proposed a provision under which members of the Parliament will have question-answer session with the prime minister twice a month. The provision has been incorporated in the Parliament Operation Regulation drafted by a committee headed by Secretary Birendra Bahadur Karki.

Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Bharat Raj Gautam said members of Parliament could question the prime minister on politics, policies and contemporary issues. “The regulation aims at easing the functioning of the Parliament,” Gautam told THT. “However, the regulation should be endorsed by the Parliament for its execution.”

The committee today submitted the draft to Parliament Secretariat General Secretary Manohar Prasad Bhattarai. The secretariat will table the draft in the Parliament for approval.

Former speaker Onsari Gharti Magar had floated the idea of putting in place a provision for question-answer session towards the end of her term, but it did not materialise. According to her proposal, the MPs could even question ministers.

According to Gautam, the secretariat has also proposed seven subjective committees in the House of Representatives and three in the National Assembly. In the previous Constituent Assembly-turned-Parliament, there were 10 subjective and three procedure committees.

The public hearing committee will have representation from both the houses. The secretariat has also proposed a constitution implementation committee.

The draft regulation will feature on the agenda of an all-party meeting slated for tomorrow. The meeting, called by the Parliament Secretariat, will also finalise dates for the election of speaker and deputy speaker.

The meeting will be attended by representatives of five national parties — the CPN-UML, the Nepali Congress, the CPN-Maoist Centre, the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal and the Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal.

“We’ll also discuss how the first meeting is to be conducted and how parliamentarians will be sworn in,” said Gautam. The issues should have been looked upon by the parliamentary business advisory committee, but since such a committee is yet to be formed, the all-party meeting will decide on the issues, said Gautam. The first meeting of the House of Representatives slated for March 5 is expected to form the committee, which will have representatives from all the national parties, as well as independent lawmakers.

Gautam said the Parliament Secretariat would prepare business schedule as per the inputs from the all-party meeting.

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