Kathmandu, Aug 26: Five months after assuming office as the country’s executive chief, Prime Minister Balendra Shah will face questions from lawmakers in Parliament for the first time. After a prolonged wait and parliamentary wrangling, Shah is set to appear before the House of Representatives to answer questions raised by lawmakers.
If the scheduled programme goes ahead as planned, Prime Minister Shah will stand at the rostrum during Wednesday’s meeting of the House of Representatives and answer written questions submitted by lawmakers in advance. The agenda has been set in accordance with Chapter 9 of the House of Representatives Regulations, 2083, which provides for lawmakers to question the Prime Minister.
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Rule 56 of the parliamentary regulations states that the question and answer session with the Prime Minister should be held during the first week of every month.
The new parliamentary regulations were passed on June 1. They retained the provision for a monthly question and answer session, as in the previous regulations. The new government, led by the Rastriya Swatantra Party, was formed on March 27.
Five months after the government was formed, the Speaker directed the Prime Minister to answer lawmakers’ questions. The question-and-answer session was scheduled accordingly. As the monthly session had not been held for five months, opposition parties had repeatedly urged the Speaker to direct the Prime Minister to appear before Parliament.
The fact that the Speaker had to issue a ruling to ensure the question and answer session shows the extent of the executive’s accountability to the legislature. It also suggests that the session was not taking place voluntarily, but under institutional pressure.
Lawmakers have registered only 11 questions for the Prime Minister. The regulations allow up to 15 questions. Supplementary questions will not be allowed. The questions will become public only after the concerned lawmakers raise them with the Prime Minister in the House. Based on statements made during previous parliamentary meetings, the questions are expected to cover border issues, geopolitics, development, construction and unemployment, among other concerns.
Wednesday’s House meeting will be politically and technically challenging for Prime Minister Shah. The government appears set to highlight its achievements, policy reforms and progress on development projects to demonstrate its effectiveness. On projects that remain unfinished, the government has tended to blame previous administrations. The opposition, meanwhile, is preparing to press the government over slow progress on border management, good governance and other issues of public concern.
In a parliamentary system, a Prime Minister answering lawmakers is not merely a procedural formality. It is a direct expression of accountability to the legislature. Shah’s failure to face lawmakers for months had raised questions about whether the government was answerable to Parliament. Though delayed, the question and answer session, following opposition pressure and the Speaker’s intervention, now requires the executive to account to Parliament and explain its policies and actions.
