Impeachment regulation committee to choose its chairperson in next meeting
KATHMANDU, AUGUST 17
Impeachment recommendation committee formed to investigate allegations against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana started its proceedings today.
Committee member Min Bahadur Bishwakarma said the committee prepared its internal regulations and gave relevant documents to committee members today.
He said the committee would soon finalise internal regulations and calendar of events.
Asked how the committee would complete its investigation into charges against CJ Rana, Bishwakarma said the committee would choose its chairperson in the next meeting and finalise internal regulations.
"It will decide areas of its investigation and who all should be interviewed in the course of investigation."
He said office bearers of the Nepal Bar Association and the Supreme Court could be interviewed in the course of investigation. NBA had staged protests against the CJ for weeks accusing him of stalling reforms in the judiciary suggested by the Justice Hari Krishna Karki-led panel, entering a quid pro quo deal with the executive, and stalling hearing of cases filed against appointments made to constitutional bodies.
At the impeachment recommendation committee today, CPN-UML lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel said investigation into charges against Rana had started quite late, as the tenure of the HoR would end in the first week of October when candidacies for parliamentary elections would be filed.
He said his party was neutral on allegations against Rana and would take a call on the basis of evidence.
CPN-MC lawmaker Yashoda Gurung Subedi said although lawmakers were seen divided on party lines on the issue, all members of the committee should investigate the matter without any bias against Rana.
The House of Representatives had on March 6atives had on March 6 formed an 11-member impeachment recommendation committee on February 13.
Members of the committee are: Bishnu Prasad Poudel, Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, Lalbabu Pandit,and Shivamaya Tumbahangphe from CPN-UML, Rekha Sharma and Yashoda Gurung Subedi from CPN-Maoist Centre, Min Bahadur Bishwakarma and Ram Bahadur Bista from the Nepali Congress, Pramod Sah of the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, Ekbal Miya of the Democratic Socialist Party-Nepal, and Kalyani Kumari Khadka of the CPN (Unified Socialist).
A version of this article appears in the print on August 18, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
