Lawmakers divided over parliamentary hearings provisions

KATHMANDU, Dec 21: Perplexed by the constitutional provision on parliamentary hearings, lawmakers remained at loggerheads till Sunday prompting the committee for drafting the Parliamentary Regulation to seek consensus from political parties to end the confusion.

The new constitution has envisaged a 15-member parliamentary hearing committee comprising members from both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly. Though the Article 296 under the transitional provisions has transformed the Constituent Assembly into a legislature-parliament and assigned it to conduct all the activities under the prerogative of the Federal Legislature until the elections are conducted, there is confusion whether the existing parliamentary hearing committee could function or not. There is a 73-members parliamentary hearing committee now but the newly-promulgated constitution has envisaged a 15-member parliamentary hearing committee.

"Nepali Congress has been lobbying for giving continuity to the existing committee and its lawmakers have been arguing that the transitional provisions allow giving continuity to the existing committee while we have been saying the committee should be a 15-member committee," said CPN-UML lawmaker Rewati Raman Bhandari.

"As the confusion continued, the regulation drafting committee has urged leaders from various parties to develop a political solution on this issue," he added.

The Article 292 of the new constitution states that "prior to the appointment, chief justice, justice of the Supreme Court, members of Judicial Council, head or official of constitutional bodies and ambassadors, there shall be a parliamentary hearing, in accordance with this constitution."
Because of the constitutional provision, there is a huge confusion whether the two members of the Judicial Council, other than ex-officio members, should be reappointed or not and whether there should be parliamentary hearing for them or not. Because of the confusion, the positions of Judicial Council members Ram Sitaula, appointed by the prime minister and Ram Kumar Shrestha, appointed by the chief justice under the recommendation of Nepal Bar Association, are non-functional at present.

Though the Constitutional Council has recommended Ayodhi Prasad Yadav for the position of chief election commissioner, his parliamentary hearing has not taken place.

Likewise, the confusions over the size of parliamentary hearing committee has hindered the process of appointing other election commissioners as well as ambassadors to at least 10 countries, including the UK, Germany, Sri Lanka and Japan.

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