Kathmandu, July 23

The main opposition Nepali Congress’ refusal to send names of their lawmakers for parliamentary thematic committees have stalled the formation of these committees.

There are 14 thematic committees in the Parliament. Of them, eight committees are in the House of Representatives and four committees are in the National Assembly. There are provisions for representation of both houses in the two parliamentary panels – the Parliamentary Hearing Committee and Implementation of Directive Principles of the Constitution Committee. Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara has repeatedly sent reminders to the NC seeking names of NC lawmakers in the thematic committees but as of today, the NC has not responded to his message.

Upper House secretary Rajendra Phuyal also said the House will only form the thematic committees after the NC hands over its list.

Parliament Secretariat also said it had not received any name list from the NC.

The NC has altogether 61 lawmakers in the HoR and 13 in the NA.

The NC first wants to reach understanding with the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) on how many chairpersons it will get.

“First, we want a proper deal with the ruling party and then we will send our lawmakers’ list to both Houses to form the thematic committees,” said Surendra Pandey, NC Chief whip in the Upper House.

But the ruling party NCP is not for a political deal with the NC.  “They have to follow the rule of Parliament,” said NCP (NCP) lawmaker Surendra Pandey, saying numbers mattered in parliamentary politics.

According to Pandey, in the Parliament formed after 1991 general election when the NC had a comfortable majority and the erstwhile CPN-UML had 69 seats, the NC didn’t give his party the chair of any thematic committee.

He said the NC later agreed to give the chair of one committee, but asked his party to send the NC’s favourite name Radha Krishna Mainali for Public Accounts Committee. “The Lawmaker was from our party but the choice was that of the NC,” the ruling party lawmaker added.

The NCP (NCP) leader also said that NC’s proposal had created a rift in his party, but finally, his party agreed to send Mainali to the PAC.

NCP Lawmaker Surendra Pandey said the ruling party could give chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee, but no more.

“If the NC talks about the Constituent Assembly, then I must tell them that it was a different and special period, not a regular parliamentary period.

“How can they demand chairmanship of four committees of the Parliament?” he wondered. But NC Lawmaker Surendra Pandey said the ruling party must address his party’s demands. “Unless they accept our demand, we are not going to give them the names of our lawmakers,” he said.