KATHMANDU, March 15: A full-House meeting of the parliament on Tuesday asked the government to direct concerned authorities to probe and take action against Lokman Singh Karki, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court as the chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
The parliament has finally put the five-month long saga of the disgraced chief of one of the powerful constitutional bodies to rest by unanimously endorsing the report of the Impeachment Recommendation Committee (IRC) regarding Karki's impeachment.
The House paved way for the government to probe into Karki's decisions taken during his four-year term as chief of the anti graft body five months after the impeachment was filed against him in the parliament.
“The parliament will write an official letter within a few days to the secretariat of the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers directing the concerned government authorities and other constitutional bodies to probe into Karki's decisions and also take legal actions if they find any wrongdoing,” said Legal Secretary at the Parliament Secretariat Arjun Khadka.
The parliamentary probe committee report had found most of the allegations mentioned in the impeachment motion to be true. However, the committee failed to establish two out of seven allegations against Karki despite finding various supporting evidences.
Karki was removed from the post of chief of the anti-graft body following a decision of the Supreme Court on January 8, before the parliamentary probe committee had prepared its report. The IRC, in its report submitted on February 10, didn't recommend impeachment against Karki arguing that the apex court had already removed him from the post. However, the committee in its report had mentioned that it had 'found enough grounds for impeaching Karki'. Taking the IRC report into consideration, Speaker Onsari Gharti on Tuesday directed the government to instruct all concerned government authorities to probe against Karki's contentious decisions mentioned in the report.
Altogether 157 lawmakers from CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) had filed the impeachment motion against controversial CIAA chief Karki on October 29, 2016 in the parliament accusing him of abusing authority.
The House on Tuesday also directed the government to maintain records of the IRC report at the Parliament Secretariat, Office of the Prime Minister, Secretariat of the Constitutional Council and National Archive for future reference.
CPN-UML lawmaker and IRC member Rewati Raman Bhandari said that concerned government authorities and CIAA itself can take legal action or file case against Karki in the court if any case of abuse of authority by Karki as CIAA chief is established through further probe.
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