KATHMANDU, Aug 2: Parliamentary Hearings Committee (PHC) member Niru Pal has said that she received a death threat from unidentified persons on Tuesday if she stood  for rejecting Deepak Raj Joshee’s nomination as chief justice. 

Following her complaint, the government has provided personal security officers to the hearings committee members. 

The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which has a two-thirds strength in the hearings committee, has proposed  rejecting Joshee’s nomination. 

“A group of unidentified individuals pointed a pistol at me and threatened my life if I appeared at the hearings committee meeting today,” NCP member Pal said, informing  the committee meeting about the incident Wednesday. The committee was expected to take a decision on Joshee Wednesday. 

According to Pal,  she had come out of her residence at New Baneshwar around 8 pm to buy some milk. 

“They snatched  my mobile phone from my hand and rushed away, and I was scared,” she said . 

The hearings committee meeting on Wednesday condemned the incident and instructed the parliament secretariat to manage security for the committee members.

“The committee has taken the incident seriously and instructed security management for our members,” PHC ad-hoc chairperson Laxman Lal Karna told media after the  meeting. 

Following Pal’s complaint, the administration had deployed personal security officers (PSOs) for the hearings committee members. Some of the members declined the PSOs. 

NCP members Purna Kumari Subedi and Amrita Thapa as well as NC members Pushpa Bhusal, Bhimsen Das Pradhan and Jeetendra Dev have declined the PSOs. 

Pal, a former chief of Yuba Sangha Nepal, was elected to the House of Representatives from the NCP under the proportional representation category.

 
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