Formation of the parliamentary hearings special committee has been deadlocked, with the political parties failing to finalize the parliamentary regulations. A meeting of the parliament regulations drafting committee on Wednesday could not reach any decision over the formation of the committee, as the ruling parties and the main opposition Nepali Congress stuck to their respective stances.Once the regulations are finalised from the committee level, they need to be endorsed by the full parliament . The House session has been prorogued since last month and government sources say the new session will be summoned only after April. Once the session convenes, the House should discuss and endorse the new parliamentary regulations through a majority vote.
According to sources, it will take a few days for the House to endorse the regulations.
If the new regulations envision a new hearings committee, the parties could spend at least a week electing its new chairman.
Secretary at the hearings special committee Dhruna Ghimire said the working procedures for the committee state that the committee must provide a period of 10 days for the public to register complaints against the recommended names, if any. "If any complaints are received, the committee will take at least three to four days to study them," said Ghimire. The hearings committee will conduct hearings separately for the 11 individuals recommended.
The hearings for the recommended names thus seem unlikely to take place before April.
"We will finalize the parliamentary regulations within three or four days, through voting in the committee if consensus eludes," said UCPN (Maoist) lawmaker and member of the regulations drafting committee, Ram Narayan Bidari.
The Judicial Council had re-sent the recommendations to parliament on Tuesday after Speaker Onsari Gharti had earlier returned the recommendations to the council, citing the absence of a hearings committee.
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