KATHMANDU, MARCH 6
The House of Representatives has formed an 11-member impeachment recommendation committee to probe into the impeachment motion filed against Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana on February 13.
Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota announced the formation of the impeachment recommendation committee during the House meeting today.
The UML, which has been obstructing House proceedings for almost six months, consented to send four of its lawmakers to the committee. They are Bishnu Prasad Poudel, Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, Lalbabu Pandit, and Shivamaya Tumbahangphe.
Other members of the committee are Rekha Sharma and Yashoda Gurung Subedi from NCP-Maoist Centre, and Min Bahadur Bishwakarma and Ram Bahadur Bista from the NC. Similarly, Pramod Sah of Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, Ekbal Miya from Democratic Socialist Party-Nepal and Kalyani Kumari Khadka from CPN (Unified Socialist) are also members of the committee.
Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Rojanth Pandey said the HoR could now discuss the impeachment motion filed against CJ Rana and send it to the impeachment recommendation committee which will probe the 21-point allegations levelled against Rana in the impeachment motion.
The committee will make its work procedure itself, choose a coordinator and complete its investigation in three months before sending a report to the HoR.
Once the committee sends its report to the HoR, the House will conduct a debate on the committee's findings and put the motion to vote. CJ Rana will lose his job if the impeachment motion is passed by two-thirds majority of the HoR, said Pandey.
Meanwhile, Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dilendra Prasad Badu told me diapersons after the House of Representatives meeting today that he took the UML's consent to send its lawmakers to the impeachment recommendation committee as its readiness to end its obstruction in the Parliament.
Badu expected the UML to play active role in the parliamentary proceedings so that the legislature could pass some urgent bills, including citizenship bill.
Thousands of eligible citizens have not been able to enjoy their rights due to non-enactment of the new citizenship law. In the absence of citizenship certificates, these people have not been able to open bank accounts and apply for jobs, Badu added.
Asked if the government was mulling early elections or holding all three types of elections - provincial, federal and local - together, Badu said that if the Parliament was continuously obstructed like this, then there would be no relevance of the HoR. He said he favoured running the House till its full five years' term.
Ruling coalition leader and Chair of CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal had earlier told mediapersons that they were thinking of holding early elections and all elections in a package. "If the HoR is dissolved, KP Sharma Oli cannot do what pleases him. His party lawmakers draw salary, but continue obstructing House proceedings.
Oli has tormented us a lot," Nepal said and added that they were talking of delaying local polls. The government has announced local polls for May 13.
CPN-MC leader Barshaman Pun, however, said that in the face of continued obstruction of parliamentary proceedings by the CPN- UML, it was natural for ruling party leaders to think about holding early elections, but doing so was a little difficult from the standpoint of weather and logistics.
Chairperson of JSP-N Upendra Yadav, said he was not consulted by any ruling party leader about the idea of holding early elections.
Deputy Parliamentary Party leader of UML Subas Chandra Nembang said that despite sending their lawmakers to the impeachment recommendation committee, his party would continue to obstruct House proceedings until their demands were met. He said his party's decision to consent to its representation in the committee was consistent with its decision to take part in other activities of the Parliament such as in the parliamentary committees.
UML had opposed the impeachment motion against Rana. Nembang said talk of early elections could be a ploy of the ruling coalition to delay local polls.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 7, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
