KATHMANDU, Feb 20: The Parliamentary Hearing Committee (PHC) has decided to probe the citizenship certificate, academic documents and political affiliation of Muslim Commission Chairperson-nominee Samim Ansari.

After receiving complaints of forged citizenship and academic certificates against Ansari, the PHC decided to write to the District Administration Office, Constitutional Council and Election Commission for details of his documents.

According to the PHC Chairperson Laxman Lal Karna, the committee has sought the details of citizenship certificate issuance from DAO, academic documents of intermediate and SLC level from the CC and central committee member's list of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) from the EC.

Chairperson nominee Ansari has been accused of possessing a forged Nepali citizenship in the complaints registered at the committee. According to the complaints, Ansari had acquired his citizenship certificate from Kathmandu DAO on January 6, 1999 at the age of 25. Claiming that Ansari was born in India, the complainant has mentioned that a copy of his citizenship certificate doesn't mention the name of the person issuing the certificate. NCP lawmaker Yogesh Bhattarai demanded that the PHC write to the DAO for details after hearing from the complainant at the committee on Tuesday.

Likewise, it has been claimed that Ansari doesn't have certificates of intermediate and SLC but has certificate of bachelor degree from Patna of India. But, according to the complaints, Ansari received the equivalence of his bachelor's degree on November 16, 2018 from Tribhuvan University, 14 years after completing his "bachelor level education". Questioning the delay in receiving the equivalence and not mentioning educational institution on his bio-data, the lawmakers demanded to probe his credentials.

The complainant has mentioned that Ansari's name has been mentioned as the 374th member of the ruling NCP central committee. He was affiliated with Rastriya Janata Party Nepal prior to the general election in 2017.

NCP lawmakers Surendra Pandey, Purna Kumari Subedi, Amrita Thapa and Federal Socialist Forum Nepal lawmaker Rajendra Shrestha demanded to carry out further investigation into the complaints. Main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) lawmakers remained absent at the meeting on Tuesday as they protested the recommendation of chiefs of various constitutional commissions in the absence of main opposition party leader.

Meanwhile, the PHC failed to take decision on the recommendation of Balananda Paudel as the chairperson of Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission and Shanta Raj Subedi as the chairperson of National Inclusive Commission after Rajendra Shrestha of FSFN sought time for party decision.

The committee meeting has been deferred till Thursday to take a decision on the recommendations of Paudel and Subedi.

 
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