KATHMANDU, Jan 29: Senior advocate Ram Narayan Bidari has said that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has been suffering from ‘parliament phobia’.
Bidari, who is also a lawmaker of the National Assembly, said so during a hearing on the writs filed against the House dissolution at the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court on Friday.
Pleading on behalf of the writ petitioners, Bidari said that PM Oli always wanted to keep himself away from parliament.
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As many as 13 writ petitions have been filed at the Supreme Court following the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) by PM Oli on December 20 last year.
During the hearing, Bidari, who is also a leader of the Dahal-Nepal-led faction of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), regretted electing such a prime minister who is scared of parliament. “I wonder why he [Oli] is scared to face parliament. He did not only dissolve the lower house - the HoR - but also adjourned the winter session of the National Assembly – the 59-member upper house of parliament – in just three days of its commencement."
According to Bidari, PM Oli has committed a crime against the state by dissolving the HoR. He further argued that other prime ministers in the future will follow in his [Oli’s] footstep if he is allowed to get away even after dissolving the lower House.
During the hearing on the writ petitions lodged against the dissolution of House at the Chief Justice Choledra Shumsher JBR-led five-member Constitutional Bench, he also tagged PM Oli as the coward who is incapable of facing parliament. According to him, the bench has two options - whether to abide by his [PM Oli’s] authoritarian rule or the constitution.
On the occasion, Bidari stated that the apex court should not spend its time on the ‘mathematical possibilities’ of formation of a new government from the House of Representatives (HoR). “Respective parties will do the calculations, so will parliament. But not here in the court.”
The constitutional bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and judges—Bishwombhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, Sapana Malla and Tej Bahadur KC has been hearing the case since January 17.
