The parliamentary hearing committee on Tuesday has endorsed chiefs of four different constitutional bodies but Samim Ansari recommended for the Muslim Commission has yet to be endorsed.
The Constitution Council on January 20 had recommended former secretary Balananda Paudel as chairman of the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission, former secretary Shanta Raj Subedi as that of National Inclusion Commission, Bijay Kumar Dutta of the Madhesi Commission, Bishnu Kumar Chaudhary of the Tharu Commission and Samim Ansari in the Muslim Commission.
The main opposition party Nepali Congress has been boycotting the hearing of five chairmen stating the names were recommended in the absence of main opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The committee endorsed the four chiefs apart from Ansari who has forged his citizenship certificate.
The photocopy of citizenship that Ansari had presented to the Constitutional Council mentioned that he was born on October 10, 1973. He also mentioned that the citizenship was issued on January 6, 199 from Kathmandu ward no. 9.
But his date of birth is October 10, 1980 as per the record kept in the District Administration Office, Kathmandu and the record mentions that the citizenship was issued from Kathmandu ward no. 19. The last digit of his year of birth 2037 (BS), 7 has been overwritten with 0 to make it 2030 in another record in the District Administration Office.
The criteria set for appointment at the constitutional bodies forbid politically affiliated persons. But the Constitutional Council recommended Ansari who was in the closed list submitted by the then CPN-UML for proportional representation system in the last general election.
Ansari, who had joined the then UML from Rastriya Janata Party Nepal before the local election, is the central member of CPN after unification.
The ruling CPN is divided on whether to approve Samim Ansari, who is close to Chairman KP Sharma Oli, or not.
Lawmakers in the committee close to the Madhav Nepal faction are preparing to reject Ansari on the grounds of forged citizenship certificate. But those close to Oli are working to get Ansari approved.
