CPN-UML lawmakers are waiting for Chairman and Parliamentary Party Leader KP Sharma Oli to decide whether to lodge impeachment motion against Supreme Court (SC) Justices.
Oli told the parliamentary party meeting on Monday that it will not respond to the registration of impeachment motion against Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana in rage and vengeance. He clarified that he is is not in favor of supporting CJ Rana and ruled out any hasty decision on the issue.
Some lawmakers speaking during the meeting called for registration of impeachment motion against SC justices in retaliation while others suggested that it should not be registered.
The party, however, collected signatures of the lawmakers present during the meeting on different blank papers ostensibly to register impeachment motion against four SC justices and Speaker Agni Sapkota.
Speaking to Setopati hours after the meeting UML lawmaker claimed that the impeachment motion will be registered on Tuesday even though the number of justices to be impeached has yet to be decided.
But another UML lawmaker told Setopati that only Oli knows when the motion will be registered and how many justices will be impeached. "Some of the lawmakers may not have understood the intention of party chairman and have, therefore, said the impeachment motion will be registered soon," the lawmakersstated. "Chairman will take a decision after observing all the developments and scenarios."
UML lawmaker and politburo member Gokul Baskota confirmed that the Monday meeting held policy discussion about registering the impeachment motion but no decision was taken.
"The leadership will hold discussion and take necessary decision about the impeachment motion. Chairman and general secretary (Shankar Pokharel) may take the decision in the party and the parliamentary board will take the decision if it is taken in the parliamentary party," Baskota elaborated. "The final decision will be taken by party chair and parliamentary party leader Oli one way or the other. We should also look at how the government moves forward for that."
There are reports that the main opposition party is preparing to lodge impeachment motion against Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Meera Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Ananda Mohan Bhattarai to counter registration of one by the ruling coalition against Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana on Sunday.
The four justices and CJ Rana were in the five-strong constitutional bench that reinstated the House dissolved for the second time by the then prime minister (PM) Oli and issued a mandamus ordering Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba be appointed PM within two days on July 12, 2021
