KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 14
The main opposition party CPN-UML is threatening to impeach four justices of the Supreme Court who constitute the constitutional bench - Acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki, Meera Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, and Anand Mohan Bhattarai.
When asked if the UML would carry out its threat of registering impeachment motion against the four justices, a UML leader told THT that party lawmakers had submitted their signatures to party leadership which could be used 'for appropriate action at appropriate time'. "We have made all kinds of preparations," the source said, adding that party Chair KP Shamra Oli told lawmakers that UML would not ignore repeated political attacks by opponents.
Oli, however, told party leaders that the party would avoid any knee-jerk reaction.
Earlier, UML leaders had said if the ruling alliance sought to impeach Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana, they would act against four justices who sat on the constitutional bench and had invalidated the Oli government's second move to dissolve the House of Representatives, besides ordering the appointment of Sher Bahadur Deuba as the new PM.
Talking to mediapersons after the UML Parliamentary Party meeting, UML Chief Whip Bishal Bhattarai said that party Chair Oli told the party lawmakers that the ruling alliance moved the impeachment motion against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana to delay local polls, to pass millennium challenge corporation deal anyhow and to unsettle the judiciary.
He said the party leadership would take a call on whether it should move impeachment motion against the four SC justices after carefully dwelling on the issue and studying legal provisions. Oli said the ruling alliance's move against CJ Rana was aimed not only against an individual, but also against democracy. He said the party would not throw its weight behind Rana, who had committed numerous mistakes, but the move was condemnable as it weakened the judiciary.
Oli reiterated that his party would make its stance clear on the MCC compact only after the ruling alliance did so. Stating that MCC deal was signed when Deuba was the prime minister in 2017 and CPN-MC a coalition partner, Bhattarai said it was unnatural for ruling alliance partners to have divergent views on the MCC compact now.
Bhattarai said the UML would retaliate against the impeachment through the Parliament, streets, and the judiciary.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 15, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
